Category: Mental Health

Maine Is onto Something

I stumbled onto a program in Maine that may become a national model. Now used in 84 high schools (about 2/3 of all Maine high schools), Jobs for Maine Graduates “teaches high school students 30 ‘soft’ or ‘durable’ skills — including communication, leadership, goal-setting, and adaptability — and awards badges to students who master them.” (https://www.the74million.org)

Created by the Maine state legislature in 1993, this program initially focused on at-risk students. Officials are now expanding this approach in a separate non-profit, GenUS. It starts in middle school with practice of simple skills like accountability, budgeting, and digital safety. High school students can earn “Micro-credentials” by submitting “Evidence of Learning” that is reviewed against clear rubrics; successful demonstrations are awarded as digital badges with embedded metadata, making skills visible, portable, and recognized by colleges and employers. “Aligned with learning standards, Maine’s Economic Strategic Development Plan, and national frameworks, Micro-credentials form the building blocks that stack into larger Credentials of Value within the GenUS Competency to Credential Model.” The goal is to expand this program nationally. (https://gen-us.org/)

Maine also has an Extended Learning Opportunity program [ELO] “to help Maine youth gain a better understanding of their career opportunities, acquire valuable foundational and 21st Century skills, as well as create meaningful connections to employers in our state.” These hands-on experiences, which emphasize community-based career exploration, take place outside of the traditional classroom, and students can earn elective or core credit. “These programs include paid work experiences, expanding educational opportunities in rural Maine, work skills development, and increasing engagement of otherwise disengaged youth. ELO Expansion Grants totaling $7.1 million have been awarded for 38 ELO programs across Maine covering 13 of Maine’s 16 counties since 2022.” (www.maine.gov/)

By 2025, Maine DOE grant-funded ELO programs have seen:

  • 3,000+ core and elective credits earned.
  • 6,000+ student participants.
  • 3,000+ new school-employer partnerships.
  • 8,000+ community and business engagements.

(https://mainedoenews.net)

Yet another program launched in 2022: the Maine Outdoor Learning Initiative is “a statewide effort to connect Maine’s young people to the outdoors through engaging, hands-on learning opportunities. In its first two years, more than 2,500 students have participated in programs ranging from hiking and kayaking to farming and forestry.” An expansion grant in 2024 increased its reach to about 4,000 students. (https://content.govdelivery.com)

Maine also has an apprenticeship program for learners 16 years of age and over that has grown dramatically. “In 2019, 757 registered apprentices, or 26% of the total, were ages 16–24. By 2025, that number had more than doubled to 1,591, representing 42% of all apprentices statewide.” It is a work in progress. While areas like construction, manufacturing, healthcare, education have thrived, the state lacks a consistent set of benchmarks applicable to all industries and a coherent statewide strategy for employer engagement and youth recruitment. (www.maine.gov) To address those concerns, Maine has been accepted as one of the ten states to participate in The Future Ready Apprenticeship Center as an “Apprenticeship America” center. (www.careerwiseusa.org)

More localized programs exist, too. Career Access through National service and Outdoor Education, or CANOE, “will offer classroom instruction, experience through service and in-person training modules with Maine-based outdoor businesses and professionals… to create pathways into and to expand year-round outdoor recreation jobs in central and western Maine, in fields such as fishing, whitewater guiding, trail building and maintenance, outdoor business, retail, manufacturing and hospitality.”  Because jobs in rural Maine are scarce and because the outdoor recreation industry is a major contributor to Maine’s economy, this program aims to equip participants with the skills they need “to access good jobs while advancing the region as a four-season outdoor recreation hub.” (https://mainebiz.biz)

We know that too many American youth suffer from anxiety and depression. Today’s youth have grown up during a pandemic, an epidemic of school shootings, and a breakdown of norms and institutions. They are battered by the threats of polarization, climate change, the impact of AI, misleading social media, etc. We know that too many aren’t hopeful about the future. Why don’t more states develop the kind of leadership that Maine is modeling. We may not be able to solve all the problems that bedevil them – and all of us – but we can show them a path that leads to a more hopeful future. We can offer them more agency. We know how. It’s time for us to make it happen.

Trying to Imagine

One of my favorite Chicago Tribune columnists, Heidi Stevens, wrote a moving piece on the Abundant Life Christian School Shooting this week.  She focused on the contrast of schoolchildren in their holiday pajamas being escorted from a crime scene. Her refrain, “I’m trying to imagine…,” repeatedly hammers home the senselessness of these avoidable tragedies. Two lines particularly hit home for me:

I’m trying to imagine what it would take for policymakers to stop wasting their time and ours arguing about trans athletes or what parts of U.S. history can be taught or whether rainbow flags are allowed in classrooms or whether dictionaries (dictionaries!) should be allowed in school libraries and start doing the hard, morally imperative work of protecting kids from guns, their No. 1 killer.

I’m trying to imagine how in the world we continue to justify this setup. (chicagotribune.com)

But there is no way to justify this set-up. “Thoughts and prayers” do not stop the shootings. They do not protect schoolchildren from frightening live shooter drills that unfortunately remain necessary. They do not repair the trauma students face, especially those who’ve endured such fear both in public school and again in college.

And not to be too gloomy, but this is only one of the pressing issues plaguing schools today.

Free public education serves not only students and their families – it is the path to an informed citizenry with self-efficacy. But schools struggled to meet that need before the pandemic, and they generally haven’t become more successful since. We know much of what we need to do. Why do we settle for failure?

What would a 2025 that showed progress for schools and their communities look like? So many changes are overdue. I used to tell my students that “If I ruled the world” – getting groans aplenty – what I would do in situations. I don’t rule the world, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting things to improve.

My initial 2025 Education Wishlist, in no particular order, no doubt missing some important pieces:

  • Gun control/keeping kids safe
  • Support for students: mental health, behavioral issues, attendance problems
  • Support for teachers dealing with the above
  • A continuing and even greater shift to student-centered classrooms with hands-on learning
  • Focus on critical thinking and lifelong learning
  • A continued emphasis on STEM skills without displacing the Humanities
  • Communities within schools
  • Communities that support their schools and respect their teachers
  • Positive [not overbearing] parental involvement
  • Removing the culture wars from education and focusing on real learning

With gratitude to Heidi Stevens, I’m trying to imagine a country where we summon the will to make these changes, hard and time-consuming though they will be. I’m trying to imagine a world where teaching and learning thrive in an environment free of fear. I’m trying to imagine an American people who care enough to make that happen.

The Impact of ACES for Education

Ten days ago I had the privilege of attending a conference about resilience and ACES [Adverse Childhood Experiences]. A pivotal part of my training as a CASA/GAL [Court Appointed Special Advocate/Guardian Ad Litem], learning about ACES had already clarified why some of my charges struggle. They have endured traumas that most of us can only imagine when we see them on television or in the movies, but the research proves that trauma actually causes toxic stress, prolonged or excessive activation of the stress response system. “Toxic stress interferes with developing healthy neural, immune, and hormonal systems and can alter our DNA expression. Over time, multiple ACEs—especially without adequate adult support—can affect the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems and have lasting effects on attention, behavior, decision-making, and response to stress throughout a lifetime” (preventchildabuse.org).

The 10 ACEs originally included:

  • Physical abuse
  • Emotional abuse
  • Sexual abuse
  • Physical neglect
  • Emotional neglect
  • Alcohol or drug abuse by a parent
  • Mentally ill parent
  • Divorce
  • Incarceration of parent
  • Childhood Domestic Violence

The consequences of higher ACES scores can be devastating:

  • People with an ACE score of 4 are twice as likely to be smokers and seven times more likely to be alcoholic.
  • Having an ACE score of 4 increases the risk of emphysema or chronic bronchitis by nearly 400 percent, and attempted suicide by 1200 percent.
  • People with high ACE scores are more likely to be violent, to have more marriages, more broken bones, more drug prescriptions, more depression, and more autoimmune diseases.
  • People with an ACE score of 6 or higher are at risk of their lifespan being shortened by 20 years (safe-sound.org).

Additional research expanded the list of ACES to include “experiencing poverty, discrimination, bullying, community violence, migration-related stressors, and foster care involvement” (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).

All is not lost, however. We can counteract the impact of ACES through the buffering, consistent presence of a caring adult. We can counteract them through trauma-informed care and education. We need to shift the focus from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” and respond accordingly.

Although I’ve been studying ACES, the recent presentation on resilience and ACES sparked a thought I should have had long ago. Perhaps because the research began near the end of my public-school teaching career, I knew nothing about it as an educator.

Now I believe that every educator should know about ACES, their implications, and how to respond to student behavior and needs more effectively. It can be done. If you want to see brilliant trauma-informed education, watch the film, Paper Tigers. It “asks the following questions: What does it mean to be a trauma-informed school? And how do you educate teens whose childhood experiences have left them with a brain and body ill-suited to learn?” (kpjrfilms.co).  At Lincoln Alternative High School in the rural community of Walla Walla, Washington,  teachers and a brilliant principal provide students with that critical stable, caring adult to help them change their lives. Their work demonstrates the principles of a trauma-informed organization:

  • “Safety
    • Throughout the organization, patients and staff feel physically and psychologically safe
  • Trustworthiness + Transparency
    • Decisions are made with transparency, and with the goal of building and maintaining trust
  • Peer Support
    • Individuals with shared experiences are integrated into the organization and viewed as integral to service delivery
  • Collaboration
    • Power differences — between staff and clients and among organizational staff — are leveled to support shared decision-making
  • Empowerment
    • Patient and staff strengths are recognized, built on, and validated — this includes a belief in resilience and the ability to heal from trauma
  • Humility + Responsiveness
    • Biases and stereotypes (e.g., based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, geography) and historical trauma are recognized and addressed” (traumainformedcare.chcs.org)

It might be easy to assume that ACES are a problem of certain communities, but the truth is that they are prevalent everywhere.  The original ACE study was conducted at Kaiser Permanente in California from 1995 to 1997. “What’s particularly startling is that the 17,000 ACE Study participants were mostly white, middle- and upper-middle class, college-educated, and all had jobs and great health care (they were all members of Kaiser Permanente)” (acestoohigh.com).

The presentation hit me like a ton of bricks… why weren’t educators everywhere learning about ACES and adjusting their pedagogical approach accordingly. I vowed to reach out to local school districts to connect them with professional resources. Students today are struggling more than they were pre-pandemic, and they need a trauma-informed approach. I wish I’d known about this when I was still in the classroom. I vow to bring this information to classrooms near me now. Won’t you?

A National Emergency

Suicide.

That’s been on my mind a lot lately. A former student, someone with a rich support network, took his life recently, as did our neighbor’s beautiful and talented college-age daughter. We may never fully understand, but we mourn.

A former colleague posted this on Facebook recently:

A month ago a student I was close to told me she relapsed (cutting herself) after 6 Mos. I told the social worker and now that student won’t speak to me and is ignoring my emails. Today another student told me her boyfriend is depressed and she thinks is suicidal, he now goes to a different school but I had him last year. So I had to tell the social worker and they had to call the other school’s social worker. Now that student will likely no longer speak to me after her boyfriend got pulled out of class today. Being a teacher is so tough.

My response wrote itself before I could think it through: “What you do is invaluable! I’ve known two young people to commit suicide recently. Teachers like you are the first line of defense far too often. I’m so sorry about the toll it takes on you, but you know what a difference you may be making in the lives of some of your students.”

The stats are frightening: suicide has become “the second-leading cause of death among people age 15 to 24 in the U.S. Nearly 20% of high school students report serious thoughts of suicide and 9% have made an attempt to take their lives, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness” (uclahealth.org).

According to the Pew Trust research survey of high school students:

  • 22% said that they had seriously considered suicide within the past year, up from 16% in 2011
  • 18% said that they had made a suicide plan, compared with 13% ten years earlier
  • 10% said they attempted suicide at least once, compared with 8% ten years earlier
  • Female, black, and LGBTQ+ students had higher rates than other groups (pewtrusts.org)

Suicide prevention resources often list possible warning signs. Too often, adults miss the warning signs or the signs aren’t obvious. We already know that kids often struggle with their mental health, and I’ve called for more mental health support in schools and the community often. What, though, might change this growing tragedy?

Some important steps:

  • Increase mental health services in schools and the community – that’s urgent!
  • Train teachers to recognize any warning signs and teach them how to proceed when they do.
  • Provide training for parents so they, too, can recognize warning signs and know where and how to seek help for their kids.
  • Support the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation for universal suicide risk screenings for teens; most people who die by suicide have visited a healthcare provider in the weeks or months before to their death (aap.org). 
  • Publicize suicide hotlines: the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available by phone, text, or chat 24/7 (https://988lifeline.org/), and The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a 24-hour, toll-free, confidential suicide prevention hotline at 1-800-273-TALK.
  • Expand anti-bullying programs; too many bullied teens commit suicide to avoid the pain.
  • Teach teens to be realistic about social media.
  • Teach teens about self-care.
  • Work on gun safety since firearms account for a growing number of suicides, more than half of all suicides in 2020 (kff.org). Limit gun sales to young adults and teach gun owners to lock up their firearms.
  • Teach parents to remove or secure dangerous drugs and lethal substances.

Two years ago the American Academy of Pediatrics partnered with the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists and Children’s Hospital Association “to declare a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health” (aap.org2). What’s changed in two years? Not enough. The time is now.