Why Safe Spaces are Critical in Today's Classrooms

Photo by Nicola Nuttall on Unsplash

Safe spaces are social-emotional learning in action.

Once Tiffany Lane created a safe space in her classroom, she knew she’d never go without one again. “The concept was introduced to me in my second year of teaching, and I’ve used it ever since,” she says.

Lane is a fourth and fifth grade teacher at the Faubion School in Portland, OR, and a big supporter of safe spaces in classrooms. But what are safe spaces exactly? Lane describes them as designated areas where kids can choose to go to calm down, take time to process, or just be alone.

If the concept sounds simple, that’s because it is. It doesn’t take much—just a quiet nook removed from other activity in the classroom. Many teachers will include glitter jars, headphones, books, art supplies, or other items to help kids take a break and decompress. The key is to model it after what works for you and your classroom.

Lane believes safe spaces, also called cool-down spots, support social-emotional learning by helping kids pay attention to their feelings and learn how to manage them. "You can't expect that kids just know how to calm down," Lane says. "We as teachers can do our part to give them these tools."

Kids can't learn when they don't feel safe.

Safe spaces serve every kind of student. For some, the space might give them a brief pause from a tough day. For others, it can be so much more. Safe spaces are often cited for helping kids suffering from intense levels of stress or trauma.

Educators have been aware of the need for schools to address childhood trauma for decades. In 1995, Sandra L. Bloom, M.D. published a paper titled “Creating Sanctuary in the School”, in which she describes the process of creating a safe and healing environment for children. She writes, “Children are only able to learn within a context of safety and security. But for many children today, neither their homes nor their schools are safe places for living, much less learning.”

Now, more than 20 years later, incidences of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their devastating impacts have only increased and are by no means restricted to specific socioeconomic or ethnic groups. Student trauma can stem from domestic violence, physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, poverty, divorce, or parental mental illness, incarceration, or substance dependence.

Marilyn Price-Mitchell, Ph.D., authored an article about the importance of helping kids heal. While the scars from trauma are sometimes evident, “(t)here are subtle, often invisible, ways children suffer from trauma,” she writes, “the most common being the loss of human connection.” This is called relational trauma, and it’s rooted in feelings of inferiority, neglect, and isolation.

Studies have long shown that children are especially vulnerable to stress, which inhibits their ability to learn. In a 2014 TEDMED Talk, pediatrician and author Nadine Burke Harris argues that the damage runs even deeper: “High doses of adversity not only affect brain structure and function; they affect the developing immune system, developing hormonal systems, and even the way our DNA is read and transcribed.” 

It’s a simple practice with enormous payoff.

This is where a handy classroom management tool can make a big difference in student well-being. Safe spaces represent a shift in educator thinking from what a child is doing to disrupt the classroom to what might be causing the behavior.

Lori Sanchez, Director of the Masters of Education Program at Concordia University, was a classroom teacher for many years. She now works with future teachers at the University to understand and implement safe spaces.

To create a positive experience for all, Sanchez recommends having an open dialogue about what it means to have a safe space in class, when to use it, and how to recognize if you need it. She emphasizes its use, not as punishment or an avoidance tactic, but as an opportunity.

“You want students to be able to choose to use the space so they can self-regulate themselves and then come back to join the class or activity when they’re ready,” says Sanchez. “All students should know that safe spaces are available to them,” she adds. “It’s not just for some.”

Safe spaces can teach respect, inclusion, empathy, and healing.

Safe spaces have nothing to do with blame or shame or marginalization. They are centered on the belief that everyone belongs.

“There’s not a one-size-fits-all for any kid,” says teacher Tiffany Lane. “We all need different things.”

Lane involves her 4th-graders in designing their space so they feel ownership of it, will want to take care of it, and respect those who choose to use it. She wants her students to understand they’re not at fault for having lots of conflicting emotions, and that these emotions are common to everyone, regardless of age, ability, or background. To drive this point home and actively model self-awareness, Lane visits the space herself “to show that needing a break is a really important, normal thing.”

Sharon Stanley, Ph.D., author of Relational and Body-Centered Practices for Healing Trauma, says, "When parents and teachers create safe spaces for children to express themselves, explore their feelings, and become aware of the sensations in their bodies, children feel what it means to be human." By allowing them to "feel felt," teachers can help students address and assess their emotions instead of holding them in.

Once kids see that it is okay and “normal” to get upset or need a break, they begin using safe spaces voluntarily for their own unique needs. This is social-emotional learning in action.

“I don’t send kids there,” Lane explains. “Kids choose to go there. And that’s how I know the safe space is successful.”

If we teach kids to learn self-control in school, they are better poised to carry the practice into adulthood where they can continue to foster safe spaces in their communities, and ideally, for their own children someday.