Submitted Article – Stressed brains can’t learn: “Paper Tigers,” a documentary film on trauma-informed education, will be shown at the Roseland Theatre in Onancock, Thursday, May 23, 7 p.m., with a discussion to follow. Eastern Shore Healthy Communities is sponsoring this event in cooperation with the Roseland Cinema and Entertainment Center (RCEC) and the Roseland Theatre. There is no charge for admittance.
“Paper Tigers,” a documentary film directed by James Redford and produced by Karen Pritzker, takes an intimate look into the lives of selected students at Lincoln High School, an alternative school specializing in educating traumatized students. It takes place in the rural community of Walla Walla, Wash., and examines the inspiring promise of trauma-informed communities – a movement showing great promise in healing youth struggling with the dark legacy of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
The film follows six students over the course of a year and shows how staff try a new approach to discipline that is based on understanding and treatment rather than judgment and suspension. It captures the pain, danger, beauty and hope of struggling teens – and shows that teachers armed with a new science and fresh approach can change lives for the better. In the process, it has become a promising model for how to break the cycles of poverty, violence, and disease that affect families.
ESHC and the co-sponsors are excited to bring this film to the Roseland Theatre. It speaks directly to the needs of many of our students, families, and educators here on the Eastern Shore and the challenges they encounter. Unfortunately, many of our students have experienced adverse childhood experiences that consequently impact their health, school performance, future career, and transition into adulthood.
Funding for this film was made possible through a generous grant from the Virginia State Office of Rural Health and the efforts of Eastern Shore Healthy Communities, Roseland Cinema and Entertainment Center, and the Roseland Theatre.