Welcome to the Classroom Narratives Healing and Education podcast, the space where education
meets resilience. I'm Joey Weisler and in each episode we dive deep into the personal stories
of educators, students, leaders, and frontline advocates who are navigating the complexities
of modern education. Whether you're just starting your teaching journey or are a seasoned professional
looking for inspiration, we'll explore how to foster meaningful change, prevent burnout,
and build trauma-informed communities in our schools. Now let's take a seat at the front of
the classroom and get started. Welcome back to the podcast everyone. So it's almost the holiday
season and this segment will serve as our finale to the first season of this podcast. Wow, what an
accomplishment as we now feature our 12th segment and many more to come so you'll want to stay
tuned. Today we have something truly special for our listeners and this is going to be a segment
featuring the brilliant minds from my own honors global literature course through St. John's
University. Today is our last class for the fall 2024 semester and these students have been diving
deep into the intersections of trauma studies, student wellness, and the role of education in
fostering resilience as seen through literature. We've studied texts this semester that focus on
the themes of trauma and silence such as Speak by Laurie Anderson, The Hate You Give by Andrew
Thomas, Push by Sapphire, The Giver by Laurie, and Art Spiegelman's graphic Holocaust memoir,
Mouse. And while we won't necessarily touch on the stories themselves in this conversation,
I just wanted to preface as to what our curriculum here looked like. So in this episode we will hear
the reflections from these students on some of these tough yet vital questions that intersect
language and trauma as well as classroom spaces that all come together for the use of resilience.
And I am so proud of the thoughtful and insightful work that these students have been doing all
semester long and I can't wait for you to hear their voices as they really try to grapple with
these important topics here for all of you. So let's welcome the Honors Global Literature
class to the Classroom Narratives podcast and get started with our conversation today.
So the first thing I wanted to ask us as we come into building what we would call to be our trauma
based toolkits, I wanted to ask the value of what stories have done for us this term in the sense of
what have we learned from a trauma-informed curriculum or rather what have stories allowed
us to think about this term and what solutions have they currently offered us? So I want to say
that all the stories we've read have in a way like opened my eyes to like real life problems and
in a way it taught me how to not to like complain about you know small things that I see in my
everyday life that I might think they're like big issues but compared to what people actually go
through makes me feel more grateful for what I have today. Definitely because one thing that we've
talked about in our past segments as well as in this course is that fiction allows us to make
connections to other characters who don't exist but most authentically the emotions that they're
dealing with very much do exist so when we bridge those connections we feel something very real about
ourselves and it can help us think about those bigger issues that are going beyond us as well.
So we've talked about in the past how there's things that not everybody goes through that are
so serious that nobody can really grasp like the density of it and after generations and generations
these stories won't be talked about by first-hand survivors anymore so I think that like the books
and the documentaries that we've watched open our eyes to that perspective that comes from the
firsthand accounts of people who have gone through things that we don't necessarily understand and
we understand until we hear from those people. Certainly you are referring back here to a
documentary that reviewed out of the University of Miami down in Florida called My Survivor where
college students mobilized and worked alongside firsthand survivors of Auschwitz and these Holocaust
survivors participated as a way to ensure that their stories could be told for generations to come
even long after that they may be gone. This class has also given the opportunity to view stories of
firsthand survivors of 9-11, of Columbine, of Parkland, and some of the other speakers believe
it or not right from this podcast such as Paula Reed from Columbine have been instrumental voices
in allowing our students to acknowledge and see themselves through not only the literature that
we've read but also the firsthand individuals who seek to also talk about it. So I very much agree
my peers that the works of fiction and they bring them they bring these stories to life in ways that
they apply to a much broader audience and I recently listened to Dr. Jordan Peterson he's a
Canadian psychologist he's scientifically proven that stories or human life is all about this idea
of stories and that humans really we look at our past to help us with the present and the future
and the idea is that when we look at stories and deal with trauma that only they open our eyes to
the reality of what the world the hardships of the world will bring us to the reality that no matter
what we face we always overcome it and that there was always a light at the end of the tunnel
to you will reach. So this semester has dedicated itself to being able to use the talking wound
within our classroom and the talking wound is this metaphorical concept that we typically use
in literature, psychology, and culture as a way to describe the process through which a person
or in stories this could be a character or even a community seek to express pain, trauma, and injury
as a way that reveals deeper truths or unspoken experiences and what this means for us in the
literature class is that the stories that we choose to engage with can allow students to
emotionally connect to our characters who may have found themselves in some of their darkest
moments and in vocalizing these connections within the classroom setting we can then seek
to understand ourselves while building our classroom community. So then towards the end
of our semester we then pivoted towards firsthand non-fiction accounts including
Charlene and Richie Schwarzkopf's 9-11 conversation which we also heard here in the podcast.
We also heard from Paula Reed in Columbine where again our listeners can visit these podcast
segments for more but what each of these guests have offered in terms of advice from their own
podcast here on the classroom narratives is to how one can maneuver after a tragedy and we spoke
about this as part of our class as well. So when it comes to addressing topics in the classroom that
invites the deepest emotions from its students what advice would you as students give to our
teachers listening and how they can remain trauma-informed as a way to help you succeed
while continuing to also break these cycles of trauma that our classroom conversations may address?
When it comes to like me personally I believe that a good like student-teacher interaction when it
comes to an emotional type of conversation I think it's just the most helpful when the teacher just
listens. I think once they start to input too many suggestions or too many comments then it kind of
makes the situation a little bit more difficult because I think personally at the end of the day
that is your teacher and the teacher is a human too and there's only so much that one teacher can
take and at the end of the day not all teachers really know as we discussed with Paula Reed not
all teachers really know how to handle a situation so I think it's important to also respect the
teacher and not push your boundary too much to the point where either one of you become uncomfortable
in the situation. It's important for you to speak to your teacher because it'll allow for
an emotional release but you also with the speaking wounds it can create like a bridge to others
who have also experienced you know similar pain and you know who might not otherwise understand it.
So I think that it's so important to have trauma studies be a major part of any class not just in
English or anything and I think it's really important to talk about it because there are
people who are first-hand survivors of certain situations and some of those people it's really
difficult to talk about it's really difficult to speak up about what has happened to them.
I think it's really important that there's some people who will talk about it for those survivors
it might give them closure about the situation that somebody is there to speak about it for them.
So the topic of trauma studies kind of brings me back to an anecdote that I have of when I first
experienced trauma studies in school and that was actually on 9-11 when I was in middle school.
My history teacher actually showed the class a documentary on it this was in seventh grade so
this was the first time that everyone was kind of introduced to this type of trauma and everyone
had so many questions and was kind of confused and also curious and scared and I feel like it's the
teacher's job and my teacher did an amazing job mediating everything answering everyone's questions
and making sure everyone understands the like intensity of the situation and why it's important
to learn about this earlier than later. For me I just want to add on to about like the topic where
like what type of teachers we need more in a way is my answer to that would be like realism that
especially like teachers who like aren't afraid to like show like their quote-unquote humane side
instead of like actually just like doing their job and making like a more like comfortable space
in a way for like the students to really start expressing themselves and like talk about what
should be spoken about more. On the topic of speaking well it's really okay that our stories
are fiction or non-fiction we can clearly see that there's always an important message that all of
them are putting to us about this idea of reality that we can try to avoid reality as much as we can
but in the end reality always wins and we have to come to terms with the fact that bad things and
wrong things do happen as well we have to also come to an understanding that people do have these
wounds that they want to try to hide and that the healing process can be very difficult and that is
important for those stories to get out. At the same time I want to maybe add an extension to the
speaking wound theory in that it's also important that we not only see the wound but we see the part
that is not wounded and in the sense of symbolism that no matter how big that wound is so to speak
there was a part of us that is still there and that there was a healing process that occurs when
we have wounds and it's not only important that we see the wounds but we see the part of us we see
that we are able to heal and overcome these things as well. When talking about this idea of trauma
in the classroom I really think there are two kind of ways that teachers tend to bring up trauma.
There's the historical context of what I like to think of as cause and effect and I feel like it's
the way that most teachers and professors usually go about trauma studies such as at
instance 9-11 where you learn about the promise of the event and you learn the historical impact
on said event and that is extremely important as we all come to an understanding that we
learn from our past mistakes officially. With the cause and effect method you kind of miss the gravity
of the effect of understanding these are true real people and I often think that the best
way a professor can teach you about trauma is give you enough information to understand the
gravitas of the situation. Leave you with the desire to learn more this idea that like it can
give only give you so much but I think the best professors will give you enough information that
you desire to continue studying it and I'm reminded of a well-known verse from scripture from John
chapter 8 verse 32 the truth shall set you free this idea that when we when we look for the truth
it like kind of it frees us as humans we come to a full understanding and I think that the
best professors are ones that enable you to desire to learn more. So I also want to mention how that
like not only does reading books or process trauma but also creative outlets like writing or are also
provide opportunities to process emotions and trauma informed teaching practices ensure that
students needs are met with like compassion and I also feel that by highlighting narratives of
resilience and recovery the classroom becomes this you know space of empowerment and inspiring hope
and personal growth and I also feel that you know collaborative activities where students get to you
know talk with each other and get stuff done together it also fosters a sense of belonging
and helping students rebuild trust in others. How can someone find a sense of being normal again
after telling or living their story of trauma and in essence when we heard from Paula Reed a
couple weeks ago we asked her this question about what does it mean to create a trauma informed
toolkit her answer was to know what to take out more than what to put in but I'm equally curious
if we were to have some type of toolkits to work with after going through our literary journey
together what would that toolkit look like for you what would you have in your toolkit
if you were to experience some type of event in your life that could be either unpleasant or
traumatic what would you take in this class that could help you move forward with that and process
that so my toolkit would consist of one thing and one thing only and that would be open discourse
I really am of the opinion and it might also be because I come from a more religious background
as well but I truly believe that open discourse is really the only way that we come to terms
with our wounds and I also think uh me personally that this idea of you going to term finding
normalcy I think that the purpose of life is to come to an understanding that there is no normalcy
the idea that we are all different and we have to come to terms with the idea that it does not
exist and we will be better but normalcy not existing because nobody knows ever normal ever
did anything that truly made a difference the fact that we are all not normal is what makes us so
unique and so special and we all contain the ability to make quick change so the idea that
our experiences make us not normal and not normal is what the world is based on and my toolkit would
just be to write it to write it like a story write it like an article just write and let it go in the
same way that Paula Reed wrote how she experienced her day and how she processed it it's like make
the story come alive and make it more than just what's in my mind but what's reality as well and
the feelings and giving giving them validity in that time by writing it as well thank you for
joining us for this powerful conversation with my honors global literature class through St John's
University. Their insights into trauma studies the speaking wound and the potentials
for classrooms to become spaces of healing remind us the critical role that educators and students
play in shaping compassionate and forms communities so as we close our season let's carry the
reflections with us and that how can we as educators peers or simply listeners create
spaces where stories of trauma can be shared and healing can begin the work isn't easy but it is
most certainly vital if you've enjoyed this episode don't forget to subscribe leave a review and share
it with others who are as passionate about education and wellness as we are thank you again for being
a part of our journey and until next time stay inspired and keep the conversation going thank
you for joining us on the classroom narratives healing and education podcast if today's episode
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