Ed Influencers

Dr. Pam Cantor is an expert on how trauma affects learning in children. A child psychiatrist, she co-authored a study on the effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on children in New York City schools. Cantor says that the stress brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the closing of schools has a double-whammy effect on children’s ability to learn. The stress of the pandemic causes the fight-or-flight reaction, which is usually buffered by human relationships, such as those in school communities – friends, classmates and teachers. With those school relationships gone or curtailed, new ones need to be created to help children cope. Without them, learning can be difficult because traumatic events release the hormone cortisol, which triggers the fight-or-flight reaction and shuts down the learning centers of the brain. With children in no condition to learn, schools and their distance learning programs need to focus on relationship-building. Educators, Cantor says, shouldn’t be worried that learning