How Morrison's, The Bluest Eye, Relates to Modern Education: Childhood Trauma and the Need for Intervention in the Classroom

Today’s education is very important to nations all around the world. We change in order to perfect the system and try to compete for the perfect education system. Our students and children see more and more traumatic events than in the past and also go through more at a young age. We look at our education system and try to pinpoint the main causes. Many studies have been conducted in order to improve our education. Many have learned that because the ease of information to world wide traumatic events and individual events, trauma is the culprit and is holding back our students causing them to suffer academically and decrease the IQ of our students. While issues of intervention in classrooms and trauma may seem unwanted, Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and much of the critical theory related suggests a deeper link, it shows us that intervention is needed in the classroom setting.

The article “The Effects of Trauma Types, Cumulative Trauma, and PTSD on IQ in Two Highly Traumatized Adolescent Groups” describes the correlation between traumatic type, PTSD and IQ. The hypothesis of this study was that the different trauma types have different influences. This article digs into the correlation between traumatic type, PTSD, and IQ. The study consisted of 390 African American adolescents and Iraqi refugee adolescents. The thesis of this study was “that different trauma types have different influences, some positive and some negative” (128). The study concluded that the higher levels of IQ may serve as a ‘premorbid protective” factor or that verbal IQ may be negatively impacted by PTSD symptoms. It was found that performance on standardized tests of memory were severely impaired. This was especially true for children who have bee...

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...vailable for the students to cope and move on with their lives and unlock their full potential.

Works Cited

Bradley D. Stein, et al. “Going To Scale: Experiences Implementing A School-Based Trauma intervention.” School Psychology Review 40.4 (2011): 549-568. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.

Lisa Chiodo, et al. “The Effects Of Trauma Types, Cumulative Trauma, And PTSD On IQ in Two Highly Traumatized Adolescent Groups.” Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, And Policy 4.1 (2012): 128-139. PsycARTICLES. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.

Herman, Judith Lewis. "Terror, Disconnection." Trauma and recovery. New York, N.Y.: BasicBooks, 1992. 31-72. Print.

Morrison, Toni. The bluest eye. New York: Plume Book, 1994. Print.

Speight, Suzette. "Internalized Racism : One More Piece of the Puzzle." The Counseling Psychologist 35.1 (2007): 126-134. Print.