Malcolm Shabazz City High School class of 1990 alumna Lara Kain is a self-employed national education consultant specializing in trauma-informed schools, school community partnerships, and holistic school reform models. She designed a resilient schools pilot for Kaiser Permanente which has been implemented in 20 schools across the country. As she reflects on why the principles and practices of creating trauma-informed/trauma-responsive environments in school settings has always connected with her deep down in her bones, she recognizes that it’s tied directly to her own roots in the progressive education movement – both as a student at Shabazz and then as a teacher.

"All the work I do with schools, all the best practices, the vision for what schools should be for ALL kids comes from my time at Shabazz. Way ahead of the curve, now schools across that country are trying to replicate."

Lara grew up on the near westside of Madison and went to Randall Elementary and then Van Hise Middle School. By the time she had finished 8th grade she was no longer interested in attending school, traumatic experiences both in school and in her life had left her jaded, angry, disconnected, and engaged in risky behaviors. School was unsafe physically and psychologically, the learning felt irrelevant, and she was unwilling to put herself inside another traumatizing institution without a fight. Fortunately (at a peer’s suggestion), she looked into Malcom Shabazz City High and the opportunity to attend four years there. In short, the environment at Shabazz was safe, relevant, and empowering. Lara recounts that “everything was rooted in relationships first as the primary driver. We were most accountable for how we treated others in our community. We had no grades, every course required self-evaluation and an evaluation of the class. The teachers practiced a power with rather than power over approach. I felt a deep sense of connection, belonging, part of a family. In fact, I am still friends with many of my teachers almost 30 years later.”

Lara’s Shabazz experience was transformational for her in so many ways and it shaped her values, ideals, and practices around the purpose of education and what it should look like. She knew deep down that what she had experienced would benefit all students, not just those on the fringe. She left high school passionate, idealistic, and determined to change public education for all. Lara went on to receive her BA in Education from UW-Madison and was fortunate to be able to return to Shabazz in 1995 to complete her student teaching assignment - her high school history teacher had become her mentor and supervising teacher. She also received her Master’s in Public Administration from The Evergreen State College.

“I became a teacher because of my teachers,” Lara says.

“I wanted to have that same influence on a young person’s life as they had on mine, to make a difference. To do things differently. To engage in radical revolutionary teaching. I knew school could be different, I had seen it, experienced it, felt it. I started teaching at an alternative high school in Western Washington, a school of choice for over age/under credit youth, parenting teens, those that simply didn’t ‘fit’ at the traditional school. At first, I tried to apply what I had been taught in my pre-service teacher education. It failed utterly. After about 3 months of what felt like total chaos and failure on my part I had to step back. I chucked out most of what I had been taught in college and went to my roots, I realized I already knew what to do- I had just lost my way for a bit. … We got to really know our students and let them know us. We threw out the packets and started the curriculum from scratch, building in experiential learning experiences out in the community, and authentic project-based learning in the classroom. We created safety, relevance, relationships, community, a family. As a result, for the most part, our students thrived. These values in our practice sound familiar?”

Learn more about how Lara Kain is drawing from her Shabazz experience to inform her work today in her blog post Rediscovering the Lessons from Progressive Education to Create Trauma-Informed Schools for All.

Do you have a story you'd like to share? Submit it here >>