Journalist Andrea Gabor graciously offered her blog to retired principal Jeanne Rotunda to reflect on her years as a school leader in New York City.
Having worked in a city that became famous for its obsession with testing and data, Rotunda was an oddity. She cared about the emotional life of children. She knew that the children needed kindness and security to be able to concentrate on school. There was no metric for the qualities she cared about. She knew that every child had a story, every child faced unimaginable challenges.
She wrote:
With the constant focus on testing, the latest standards, data that presume to quantify everything important about a good education, we rarely discuss the important unmeasurables, including the emotional life of children. Yet, who among us is not aware of how our own childhoods have impacted our adult lives? Do we not think about how we feel about situations in our lives and try to manage our stress levels? Aren’t we dealing daily with the complexities of relationships and choices? How can we expect a child like David to focus his energies fully on learning? How can we think a child knows how to express feelings appropriately and ask for what he needs when the closest relationships in his life are so damaged? The trauma of growing up in a home with enormous stress from finances, violence, drugs, and other dysfunctions, cannot be underestimated. How is it that we rarely create the space and time to truly understand how these complex emotions shape the children we educate and our designs for their learning environments?
Being aware of and responsive to a child’s inner life can be painful for the adults who venture there. But responding with anything less than a dedication to understand and help the child navigate their young but fragile lives, is to not be fully present to their reality. Schools that are sensitive to the whole child and build meaningful opportunities to nurture and grow the emotions of children, are schools we should look to for guidance and inspiration.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
To paraphrase “Sir” David Coleman…we don’t give a sh*t what students think or feel…
What a rare treasure for children and public education to have a principal like Jeanne Rotunda. Thank you Jeanne for sharing your wonderful philosophy. I hope you can be a model for other principals and teachers as they help children navigate this “perfect storm” of psychological stress from testing abuse.
In the autocratic and punitive school environment of testing obsession today, too many principals have become beaten down from the traumatic stress and authoritarian dictates of callous agencies. Too many are in the survival mode and emotionally desensitized and burned out. Their spirits have gone.
Principals like Jeanne Rotunda who have scholarly intellect as well as moral courage are the true champions of public education. They are the experts who understand how children learn and develop according to natural laws, rather than the dictates of billionaire corporate reformers.
Can we please clone Jeanne Rotunda?
Channeling my inner KTA “is to not be fully present to their reality” but is to be fully present to their rheeality.
This story from Beaumont, Texas is a prime example of how adults have come callous and uncaring when it comes to the emotional needs of children.
http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/10-year-old-s-desk-sits-empty-today-5367203.php
The United States of America has lost its soul. Money corrupts. Power corrupts. Politicians corrupt.
From the article:
“Disrupting the routine established for the 300 students who attend Booker T. Washington would not help them perform better on the STAAR or ease them through the tragic death of one of their classmates, said Carmen Kaimann, a licensed clinical psychologist with Beaumont Psychological Services.
“Kids like structure,” she said. “Certainly, it would do more harm than good to postpone (the test).””
Dr. Kaimann needs her license revoked. She is one cold fish.
Dienne, I agree with you. My speculation is that TEA and Port Arthur ISD pressured the local Beaumont Psychological Services to give a statement in support of their testing schedule. This is my response to the newspaper and posted on Texas Parents Opt Out FB:
Texas Parents Opt Out of State Tests shared a link.
20 hours ago ·
Re: The Tragic Death of Tyvone Washington in Port Arthur Texas.
My heart goes out to Tyvone’s family, friends, and his school community. No words can describe the traumatic grief that comes from the loss of a precious child.
I would like to make this public statement that I respectfully disagree with the recommendation of Beaumont Psychological Services and Port Arthur ISD that required the children to continue with STAAR testing as scheduled. I believe this decision was based on TEA’s rigid policy and inflexibility for STAAR, rather than the children’s need for crisis intervention with adequate time to process this trauma.
Tyvone’s death would obviously have caused acute trauma and traumatic grief for his classmates and friends. Trauma needs to be processed immediately and with trauma trained specialists. It is not realistic to think that processing this trauma with these children could have been accomplished in one school day, before adding on the additional stress of a four hour STAAR test the next day.
It is true that following trauma children need the stability of their normal routine, and comfort from caregivers and emotional support from teachers and peers. They also need help from trauma trained counselors and social workers to help them process the trauma and do the recovery in a period of time that is protected from additional stress. I believe forcing the children to take STAAR on top of this traumatic event was high risk for re-traumatizing many of the children. In cases like this, my opinion is that it is always wise to err on the side of safety for children. The STAAR could have been re-scheduled at a later time.
I think this was a callous decision by school officials at Port Arthur ISD. It showed disrespect for Tyvone’s family, and in my professional opinion, it did not demonstrate “best practice” for trauma intervention for young elementary age children. Most children this age do not have adequate coping mechanisms for trauma and grief that can accompany the death of a friend and classmate. Many of these children most likely did not have adequate time to process and recover their emotional stability before being handed the stress of a four hour STAAR, which in itself is traumatic for many 4th graders.
This tragedy causes all of us as parents and community members to grieve with this family and children. It also shines a light on the inflexibility of TEA policy that does not put children’s most critical needs as top priority.
Joyce Murdock Feilke Austin Texas School Counselor 30+yrs
Well said, Mimi.
Further proof of Dr. Kaimann’s gross incompetence: “”Usually, kids handle trauma with denial and repression,” she [Dr. Kaimann] said.”
I have never figured out how one could become a teacher unless this was the first priority ….that one cared about young people first and foremost. This current “movement” is hard for most of us because the ones who benefit don’t care about kids. …ie their emotional lives Thanks for reminding us how important it is.