Big T and Little t Trauma in the Classroom: Why It Matters for Teaching and Learning

When we hear the word trauma, most of us picture something catastrophic: war, natural disasters, abuse, or life-threatening accidents. Psychologists call these Big “T” traumas, events that overwhelm the nervous system in a single moment.

But there’s another kind of trauma that rarely makes headlines yet shows up in our classrooms every day. Little “t” trauma doesn’t come from one dramatic event. Instead, it comes from the absence of what every child needs: love, safety, significance, and connection. Growing up without these can leave wounds just as deep, even if they’re invisible.

Why Teachers Should Care

Children who’ve lived through Big T trauma often carry visible scars: flashbacks, hypervigilance, or sudden shutdowns. Little t trauma, on the other hand, is quieter. It shows up as the child who never raises their hand, the one who fawns to please everyone, or the one who freezes during group work, not because they don’t know the answer, but because their nervous system has learned that silence is safer than risk.

When educators don’t understand this, we may misinterpret survival responses as laziness, defiance, or lack of ability. Trauma-informed pedagogy asks us to look again: What survival story is this behaviour telling?

The Nervous System in the Classroom

The nervous system responds to danger in predictable ways: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. In schools, fight and flight are obvious: the child who lashes out or storms from the room. But freeze and fawn are far more common in students with Little t trauma:

• Freeze: They go blank, shut down, or seem “spaced out.”

• Fawn: They over-comply, people-please, or deny their own needs to stay safe.

Both are survival strategies. Neither is a choice. Understanding this reframes our role: before asking why aren’t they engaging?, we ask what environment do they need to feel safe enough to engage?

A Mother's Legacy and JVDT’s Lens

My mother, Jacoba du Toit, taught me early that education is not just about transferring knowledge. It's about restoring dignity. She stood against injustice, taught those the world overlooked, and lived as if every child’s story mattered.

That same conviction underpins the JVDT Methodology. When we integrate trauma-awareness into pedagogy, we acknowledge that the classroom is never a neutral space. For some students, simply showing up is already an act of courage. Our job is not only to teach content, but to create rails of safety and belonging (Root and Context), where students can begin their journey through information, integration, comprehension, and application.

Moving from Survival to Learning

Trauma-informed pedagogy isn’t about lowering standards; it’s about removing barriers. When we provide predictable routines, genuine connection, and opportunities for students to experience success, we are re-training the nervous system to expect safety instead of threat. This shift allows students to move from survival states (freeze/fawn) into learning states where curiosity and creativity can thrive.

A Call to Educators

Big T or Little t, both matter. Both shape how students sit in our classrooms and how they see themselves as learners. Our response as educators matters even more. When we recognise trauma not as an excuse but as a context, we stop blaming children for survival patterns they never chose. Instead, we become co-journeyers, guiding them toward integration, growth, and hope.

Trauma does not have to define the end of a story. With the right environment, it can become the soil from which resilience, empathy, and new possibility grow, both in our students and in ourselves.