Using Brain Science To Transform Schools

After Sept 11th 2001, child trauma psychiatrist Pamela Cantor was hired to assess the emotional impact of the attacks on New York school children. What she discovered surprised her. "From lower Manhattan to the Bronx, most of the children I met were traumatized less by what they had witnessed that terrifying morning than by the experience of growing up in poverty," says Pamela. She found that "one in five children in NYC met the criteria for a full-blown psychiatric disorder, and 68 percent had exposure to trauma sufficient to impair their functioning in school." This discovery led Pamela to found Turnaround for Children in 2002, a nonprofit which partners with public schools to address teaching and learning obstacles arising from the stress of poverty. When a social entrepreneur evaluation organization investigated Pamela's work, they were amazed: "When we see organizations who address the whole child and their brain development, we take note. Turnaround is one of those organizations."

http://www.dailygood.org/story/962/dr-pamela-cantor-using-neuroscience-to-transform-schools-encore-org/