Thread by @suzannezeedyk

How @ScotGovEdu announcement of a Behaviour Summit is turning into a #DramaTriangle that scapegoats children - and what we can each do to stay out of that mindset, thereby helping both teachers AND children (and their parents). A THREAD.
bbc.com/news/uk-scotla…

2. Yestrday I was quite vocal on Twitter, talking abt what I am watchng unfold as talk of ‘Youth Violence’ in Scotland unfurls across t media, Parliament, school staff rooms & third sector support organisations. By day’s end I was offerng analyses of absent words like “distress”.

https://twitter.com/suzannezeedyk/status/1661852899326951426

3. Earlier in t day, I spent time at @BannermanHigh , deliverng an inservice ssn where I tried to help staff think abt trauma & stress. Many staff said they found it helpful. Some said I hadn’t offered enough practical ideas abt what teachers can DO to manage yng ppl’s behaviour.

4. Very early in t day, I wrote a thread on my planned content, trying to help us see how t announcemnt of a Behaviour Summit was already being framed as about bad, violent children creatng threatening, unsafe environments for adults. The @scotgov statement never mentions trauma.

https://twitter.com/suzannezeedyk/status/1661594892307496960

5. That prompted a bunch of grumpy ppl who hide behind anonymous accounts on Twitter to hv a go at me.
“I am sick to death of talkng abt traumatised kids.”
“I am tired of childrn having no consequences.”
“Stop telling me how to do my job.”
“Do you know what we’ve put up with?”

6. I am telling this as a story so that we can simply see what happens when human beings try to talk about hard stuff. There are lots of feelings about this. People are frustrated. People have suffered. BOTH teachers & children have suffered. Many feel unheard & un-helped.

7. These are precisely t moments when Drama Triangles emerge in human interactions. We talk a lot about these in #DaringVentures . When people feel trapped, they slip into 3 roles: Victim, Persecutor & Rescuer. Their framing of t problem limits solutions. leadershiptribe.co.uk/blog/the-drama…

8. Drama Triangles are really common, really human, really understandable. They look for someone to blame - because you feel trapped & threatened. They feel easier but make everything harder. They do not yield solutions. Start by understanding them.

9. When I said yesterdy that I “am not buying the language of violent children”, what I meant was I am ensuring I stay out of a Drama Triangle. It will be so easy for us to set children up as t Persecutor. Many ppl (& the media) already are. *Don’t do that.* That’s scapegoating.

https://twitter.com/suzannezeedyk/status/1661867402617843714

10. I don’t mean violence is okay. I mean that blame does not offer solutions. It offers short term fixes & then continues the cycle of problems.
We are the adults. We provide the environment in which children develop. If we do not slip into victim mode, more solutions emerge.

11. Language matters, as @JKnussen says. Acknowledgng teachers’ sense of fear & threat & frustration matters. We’ve been ignoring that. The risk is that frustration slips into turning children impacted by Covid & cost of living crisis into the Persecutors. No solutions lie there.

https://twitter.com/jknussen/status/1661851924700844034

12/end. I hope this wider framing of this behaviour crisis is helpful. We are dealing with long-term cultural issues, as Aynsley-Green has tried to help us see. We have a better chance of tackling that if we do that together, with #FierceCuriosity. Relationships work.