The narrative discusses the poignant experience of an educator who encountered a student planning an attack, reflecting on the prevalent fear and unaddressed pain among students. The educator realized the need for addressing emotional distress through innovative classroom strategies. While traditional methods left students struggling, introducing a counselor into the classroom helped navigate feelings and emotions effectively.

The introduction of "Fight Club," a program that combines language arts with psychological support, showcases a transformative effect. It provides a unique space where students, handpicked by their teachers, explore their emotions and personal journeys through literature and language. The program encourages personal choice and fosters authentic connections and understanding.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. suicide [ˈsuːɪsaɪd] - (noun) - The act of intentionally causing one's own death. - Synonyms: (self-destruction, self-harm, fatality)

His suicide letter left and his plan to shoot his teacher and then himself.

2. ineffective [ˌɪnɪˈfɛktɪv] - (adjective) - Not producing any significant or desired effect. - Synonyms: (useless, futile, unsuccessful)

I was ready to walk away because I was tired of feeling overwhelmed and ineffective.

3. navigate [ˈnævɪˌɡeɪt] - (verb) - To plan and direct the course of a journey. - Synonyms: (steer, guide, pilot)

I have access to hope and help and even an outlet for that pain. Because I have a counselor in my classroom who comes once a week and helps us navigate these feelings together.

4. suffering [ˈsʌfərɪŋ] - (noun) - The state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship. - Synonyms: (pain, distress, agony)

The truth is, education is not the great equalizer suffering is.

5. foundation [faʊnˈdeɪʃən] - (noun) - The basis or groundwork of anything. - Synonyms: (base, groundwork, footing)

That's the human condition. And it's also the only foundation for any relationship.

6. abide [əˈbaɪd] - (verb) - To accept or act in accordance with a rule or decision. - Synonyms: (comply, adhere, follow)

Things are going to come up that don't in a traditional classroom setting. And for that reason, we ask them to abide by the same rules.

7. emotions [ɪˈmoʊʃənz] - (noun) - Intense feelings that are directed at someone or something. - Synonyms: (feelings, sentiments, passions)

We look at Romeo and Juliet for who they are, two teenagers with overwhelming emotions and a lack of support.

8. regurgitate [rɪˈɡɜːrdʒɪˌteɪt] - (verb) - To repeat information mechanically without understanding it. - Synonyms: (repeat, echo, parrot)

I mean, does this kid sound like he's ready to regurgitate Shakespeare?

9. preoccupied [priˈɑːkjʊˌpaɪd] - (adjective) - Dominated or engrossed by something; fully absorbed. - Synonyms: (absorbed, engrossed, immersed)

How can anyone pursue their purpose when they're preoccupied with their survival?

10. resonate [ˈrɛzəˌneɪt] - (verb) - To evoke a feeling of shared emotion or belief. - Synonyms: (echo, reverberate, chime)

And when our experiences resonate with someone else, which is what a relationship is, change happens.

Fight Clubs for School - A Counselor in Every Classroom - Emily Torres & Sean Barrett - TEDxSpokane

I was in my third year as an educator when a 14-year-old boy walked into our school with his grandmother. His suicide letter left and his plan to shoot his teacher and then himself. He waited for her outside of her office just three doors down from my classroom that day after school for over an hour. But luckily he was unsuccessful in his attempts.

In the years following that event, I feared those kinds of kids. Or at least I thought I did. It was actually their pain that I was afraid of and their willingness to unleash it on themselves and others. And while the majority of my teaching days passed uneventfully after that, the pain continued to show up in the form of anger, anxiety, and apathy.

I didn't have what these kids needed and I knew that. So 15 years into my career, I loved. I was ready to walk away because I was tired of feeling overwhelmed and ineffective. But I don't feel that way today. I don't fear them. I look for them and I try to put them in my class. Because now I have what every student and teacher deserves. I have access to hope and help and even an outlet for that pain. Because I have a counselor in my classroom who comes once a week and helps us navigate these feelings together.

Because the truth is, education is not the great equalizer suffering is. Every single person you ever meet suffers in ways you can't imagine. That's the human condition. And it's also the only foundation for any relationship.

If I had to sell you just one. Eight years ago, Emily gave me an assignment to be the counselor in a classroom for students who couldn't do their homework, let alone show up for school. What we created was a Fight club. A place where students can fight what they're really up against. And we can fight for them and with them, using psychology and language arts. Fight Club isn't therapy, but it is informed by therapy.

Because Fight Club is built on relationships that offer tools for pain. The pain in us that others are seldom aware of. The pain in us that keeps us from engaging in the world. So what is it exactly? On their transcript, it's a regular English class with the same standards and expectations as any other course.

Only students are recommended for our class by former teachers who know what to look for. As teachers, we understand every behavior is a communication. Then they are interviewed and invited to join this unique class. But ultimately they have to choose the space where we use literature and the art of language to navigate their personal journeys.

Why Fight Club? Well, if you've seen the cult classic, you already know Fight Club has rules and Rule number one is you do not talk about Fight Club. And rule number two is you do not talk about Fight Club. Because Sean comes in and gives them language to articulate their experiences. Things are going to come up that don't in a traditional classroom setting. And for that reason, we ask them to abide by the same rules. And in the eight years that we've had Fight Club, no one has ever broken our rules.

Once we have the language and the rules established, then we can focus on the learning. But instead of looking at recursive motifs and themes in Shakespeare, we focus on the human experience. We look at Romeo and Juliet for who they are, two teenagers with overwhelming emotions and a lack of support. We become compassionate to their plight and their pain and understanding of their need and longing for authentic connection.

This is from the Psychological evaluation of a 16-year-old. I should mention that we have permission to use these words because this is how a psychologist evaluated me at 16 years old. The corresponding Fs across all of my report cards didn't stand for fun because I had my parents to disappoint when I got home, too. These words didn't mean that I had problems. I thought I was the problem. I mean, does this kid sound like he's ready to regurgitate Shakespeare?

But these words. I would have written you 10 essays about this song. I would have turned them all in early. I needed language for my pain before I put language to my assignments. Because how can anyone pursue their purpose when they're preoccupied with their survival? It's not uncommon for teachers and therapists like Emily and I to become what we needed when we were younger. Though if we would have had a Fight Club back then, we wouldn't be here with the opportunity to tell you just how necessary it really is.

My evaluation and my performance in school still aren't the exception of the rule. As a counselor, I was trained that humans are born curious and they learn naturally if they have access to physical and emotional safety. So I now hold a deeply relational but also don't tell other people how they feel philosophy. And I'm going to break my own rule here because it doesn't take a cardiologist to hear the hearts of our beloved youth.

If you think this is fake news, consider yourself lucky. You should feel heartbroken. And how do we know that they feel this way? It's easy if you ask them. We hand out note cards and we ask our students to write down the voices in their heads that they wish they didn't have to hear. And then we collect them, and we read them aloud.

Here's another part of a counselor's pain demands to be felt, and you can only ignore it or push it aside for so long and pray it doesn't come out sideways. And when a car like this comes up, of course I take it to my principal. I can't offer much because they're anonymous, but I do disclose it. And we decide together that whomever it is, at least their pain is in the right place. And despite the darkness, the feedback afterwards is always overwhelmingly positive.

Because when kids realize that pain is the common denominator in a room, the behavior issues go away and the learning becomes possible. The fact is, every single kid deserves access to mental wellness at school, and it is our responsibility to get it done.

After World War I, we saw a need to improve physical fitness of our youth in case of a future war. And so we prioritized it. We put physical education classes into every school curriculum. After World War II, FDR saw a need to improve nutrition, and so he started a national school lunch program that we still have to this day.

We have a history of seeing a need in this nation and addressing it systemically through public education, and the need now has never been clearer. Every single student deserves comprehensive mental wellness in their school curriculum. Because we know when we heal our kids, we heal our communities. And this is how we heal it.

Every year we remind the students that they are inherently good and they always have been. And although they have problems, they are not the problem. And after that, we play with language arts. A wise person once told me, when things get tough, you have to get tough. But when that doesn't work, you have to sing a love song. Think of a song that pulled you through the pain.

Because it takes a student who keeps hearing, why aren't you listening? And it changes the conversation to, hey, what are you listening to? Which is why we make playlists for our emotions as we work together to find ways to manage them. Or, for example, we look at current events and we draw our broken hearts.

For too long, our school system has focused only on the IQ, the intellectual equation of our kids, and not the EQ, the emotional equation. With these assignments, we do both, and not only do we get 100% completion, but the kids are taking these assignments home and tasking it to their parents and guardians, their friends, and their partners. They're sharing their heart art, they're sharing their playlists. But most importantly, they are using healthy mediums to talk about their feelings.

In Fight Club, along with Shakespeare, each student becomes the art that they are tasked with understanding. Fight Club works because. And Emily will back me up here. Teenagers have the best bullshit monitors. They know whether you're talking at them or with them. And engaging in school won't happen with the former.

And in our final assignment, we read the Hero's Adventure by Joseph Campbell. And students are tasked not with a reading comprehension check of this complex text or a thematic essay, but with something even harder. With identifying and slaying their inner dragon. According to Campbell, this is the journey we must all take to heal. And it involves confronting those visceral voices and feelings of shame and unworthiness. And while the job is never truly done, they now have the skills to keep fighting.

It's not uncommon to hear the teachings of Shawn. In this final task, the burden of teacher as fixer is lifted. You may have heard that the number one factor in successful therapy isn't the degrees on the wall or how skillful the counselor is. It's all in the relationship. Fight Club is the relationship that makes experiences more manageable, because that's what music and art do. They connect to our experiences.

And when our experiences resonate with someone else, which is what a relationship is, change happens. We're failing our students. I'm not talking about the report cards. Students need more. Fight Club is the more. Fight Club is wellness in a curriculum. We need a Fight Club in every high school in America because it works.

It's never not worked. And if you want to know that grades and attendance improve, they do. But a bit more importantly, Emily and I have been told multiple times across these multiple years that this class saved their lives. So whether it's the kids who are coming to school with the guns or the ones whose therapists fear that they're suicidal or the brave kids who are willing to take our class and face their dragons, it should be a reminder that there's not one particular kind of kid who has pain, but there should be a particular place to put it.

They all deserve Fight Club. It's not radical. It's replicable. It's how we help our kids, and it's how we keep our teachers. It's time to prioritize it. But to do that, it also means it's time to break some rules. So we hope you will agree with us when we say it's time to start talking about Fight Club. Thank you.

EDUCATION, INSPIRATION, MOTIVATION, EMOTIONAL WELLNESS, PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT, SCHOOL CURRICULUM, TEDX TALKS