While reformers and policymakers focus on achievement gaps, testing, and accountability, millions of students mentally and emotionally disengage from learning and many gifted teachers leave the field. Ironically, today’s schooling is damaging the single most essential component to education—the joy of learning How do we recognize the “wounds” caused by outdated schooling policies? How do we heal them? In her controversial new book, education writer and critic Kirsten Olson brings to light the devastating consequences of an educational approach that values conformity over creativity, flattens student’s interests, and dampens down differences among learners. Drawing on deeply emotional stories, Olson shows that current institutional structures do not produce the kinds of minds and thinking that society really needs. Instead, the system tends to shame, disable, and bore many learners. Most importantly, she presents the experiences of wounded learners who have healed and shows what teachers, parents, and students can do right now to help themselves stay healthy. “We need to replace industrial schooling with more genuinely caring and humane ways of teaching, and Olson clearly shows us why and how to do it.” —Ron Miller, Editor, Education Revolution magazine “Wounded by School is not merely a technical repair manual for our broken schools, it is a guide to how to revive their purpose, their spirit, and their hope.” —David H. Rose, Founding Director, CAST (the Center for Applied Special Technology) “Kirsten Olson’s book is refreshingly unlike the general run of sludge I associate with writing about pedagogy. I can’t imagine anyone not being better for reading this book—Twice!” —John Taylor Gatto, author of Dumbing Us Down “I invite anyone invested in American public schools (and I hope that’s all of us) to read this book and join hands in building schools that help every student not only heal but thrive.” —Terry Chadsey, Associate Director, Center for Courage & Renewal “Olson questions the appropriateness of school structures, norms, rituals, and routines that were set in place—cast in stone more than a century ago—that now seem dangerously anachronistic and alienating. And she asks us to consider the ways in which we might create more cherishing and inclusive school cultures that would incite learning and love.” —From the Foreword by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Harvard Graduate School of Education

This inspirational book gives strategies and ideas to educators who work with wounded students—students who are beyond the point of “at-risk” and who suffer from hopelessness. It shows teachers and principals how to understand, teach, discipline, and motivate these students. This book will also empower and encourage educators to give hope to all students and direct them on a path to academic and life success.

Learning from the Wounded: The Civil War and the Rise of American Medical Science

7 Ways to Transform the Lives of Wounded Students provides a wealth of strategies and ideas for teachers and principals who work with wounded students—those who are beyond the point of "at-risk" and have experienced trauma in their lives. Sharing stories and examples from real schools and students, this inspirational book examines the seven key strategies necessary for changing school culture to transform the lives of individual students. Recognizing the power of effective leadership and empathy in creating a sense of community and safety for wounded students, Hendershott offers a valuable resource to help educators redesign their school environment to meet the needs of children and empower educators to direct students on a path to academic and life success.

Educators today are facing challenges and demands like never before. The tensions between an educator’s calling and the reality of the profession can create a growing sense of compassion fatigue, burnout, and job dissatisfaction. In light of this context, this book brings firsthand knowledge alongside research to encourage, equip, and empower teachers and other K-12 educators to find relief and hope. Taking a trauma-sensitive approach, this important resource will help you navigate the pressures of being an educator, whether you entered into your profession carrying wounds with you, have felt wounded from your work environment, or you are simply someone trying to support others. Packed with doable strategies and suggestions for personal and professional self-care, this book will help you discover a personal journey towards holistic health, job satisfaction, and most importantly, hope!

If you have been wounded by a church leaders, there is hope.

Yong Zhao shines a light on the long-ignored phenomenon of side effects of education policies and practices, bringing a fresh and perhaps surprising perspective to evidence-based practices and policies. Identifying the adverse effects of some of the “best” educational interventions with examples from classrooms to boardrooms, the author investigates causes and offers clear recommendations. “A highly readable and important book about the side effects of education reforms. Every educator and researcher should take its lessons to heart.” —Diane Ravitch, New York University “A stunning analysis of the problems encountered in our efforts to improve education. If Yong Zhao has not delivered the death blow to naive empiricism, he has at least severely wounded it.” —Gene V. Glass, San José State University “This book is a brilliantly written analysis of well-known educational change efforts followed by a concrete call for action that no policymaker, researcher, teacher, or education reform advocate should leave unread.” —Pasi Sahlberg, University of New South Wales, Sydney “Nothing less than the future of the republic is dealt with in this wonderful and crucial book about the field of educational research and policy.” —David C. Berliner, Arizona State University