As a former teacher, I loved reading Bromfield's chapter about school consultation. I hear social workers critique teachers a lot and always feel defensive because I know how overburdened and underpaid they are. Even with the best intentions, it's impossible for teachers to always handle things in a "trauma-informed" way when the conditions they're working in are inherently traumatic or not geared towards children's/teachers' actual needs. I had 30 kids in my class, it was impossible to tend to every child's mental health even though I cared more about that than academics. I think Bromfield is absolutely correct that the most effective way to work with schools is through building a trusting and genuinely respectful relationship with the child's teacher.
I really enjoyed the video on "The Land" and I think it brings up a number of interesting questions. It was interesting to hear about the role of the "play workers" and how their job is essentially to be constantly balancing what's good for a child's development versus what's too unsafe. I wonder about the training they receive because I think in order to do this risk assessment effectively, one would need to have a very solid understanding about why and how these play behaviors like taking risks support children's development. If you don't understand the pros, I can understand why someone would want to jump in immediately and stop the kids from playing with fire. I also wonder about the socioeconomic status of the children in the video or about the cultural differences in Europe versus the U.S. regarding being "dirty." I know majority of my students' parents in North Philadelphia would not let their kids go somewhere where they were going to get that messy, I think partly due to limited time and funds to do laundry or replace dirty clothes.