Today is an e-learning/snow day for Duluth Public Schools. Another blizzard has closed the schools. I’m liking a day off, but I keep wondering about the kids.  As an old bumper sticker read, “So, how are the children?”

After retirement as a local church pastor for 36 years, I’ve been working as a paraprofessional in a “high need” elementary school.  My days are spent with kids with emotional and behavioral challenges. There are lots of students in and out of our room for groups, learning, positive breaks or time in one of the calming spaces. Our days are often chaotic and challenging but also filled with very meaningful moments.

The drawing above was done by one of our first graders.  He often calms by coloring. This picture is ocean filled with sea monsters and sharks “with big teeth to kill the monsters”. In real life he is dealing with some very big stuff. I also found it interesting that he often draws water. Water in dreams is often a symbol of a person’s emotions.

This week in fifth grade health class the teacher has been talking about the human brain and emotions. I have so appreciated her gentle ways and great analogies. She has talked about our brains as having an upstairs (reasoning function) and a downstairs (reactive function) just like a house. And most importantly we have a staircase that connects the two parts of our brain. She has given them strategies to keep the two floors connected. And she has also talked to them about how trauma and stress can keep some people spending a lot of time in their downstairs brain.

As she was talking the student I was with turned to me and very seriously asked, “Do I have a staircase?”  “Oh yes” I replied, “ And you have done so much good work this year in fixing the steps that were broken “.  Last year he would often scream when things became overwhelming, and I would have to remove him from the class.  This has happened far less this year as he has learned so many more calming strategies.

In the staff break room these days the conversation often turns to what will the cuts to staff be in the coming year. There are few calming strategies to help us with our anxiety. The Duluth Public School District is facing a $4 million dollar budget deficit. In Minnesota 50 districts have a total of $223 million dollars in budget deficits. As Superintendent John Magas wrote, “One of the biggest issues we face is related to the shortfall in Special Education funding. As the legislative session continues, special education funding remains the central issue in K- 12 budget discussions across Minnesota.” 

The state of Minnesota is looking at a possible 3.7 billion dollar surplus this year. Wouldn’t it be great if some of that could to back into our schools? Superintendent Magas urges us all to lobby our legislators.

I can’t help but think as the war rages on in Iran at a cost of one billion dollars a day and has tragically ended so many lives, including the lives of over 160 school children, that the staircase of this current administration’s brain is seriously damaged. There is so much work to be done to reconnect to our rational selves. There are some very big monsters.

 May we never stop asking. “So How Are the Children?”