Reclaiming Our Students
Why Children Are More Anxious, Aggressive, and Shut Down Than Ever
– And What We Can Do About It

Children are more anxious, aggressive, and shut down than ever.

Faced with this epidemic of emotional health crises and behavioral problems, teachers are asking themselves what went wrong. Why have we lost our students? More importantly: how can we get them back?

Reclaiming Our Students is a thoughtful guide to restoring the student-teacher relationship and creating the conditions for change, written by Hannah Beach, award-winning educator and author, and Tamara Neufeld Strijack, clinical counsellor and academic dean of the Neufeld Institute—with a foreword by Gordon Neufeld, PhD. Reclaiming Our Students empowers teachers with relationship-based strategies to restore their leadership role and build emotional safety in the classroom.

You’ll learn:

  • How to build, feed, and protect the student-teacher relationship
  • Why children are anxious or bossy, aggressive or checked out, and what teachers can do to address these behavioral issues at their root
  • How you can help students and classes shift their identity as the “problem student” or “bad class”
  • Experiential activities for students of all ages that preserve and restore emotional health and well-being

Plus, you’ll find special considerations and information for parents, principals, counsellors, and home educators for building safety and support in the learning environment.

Reclaiming Our Students is required reading for teachers that not only want to understand and overcome daily challenges, but also re-connect to their calling as educators.

Reviews and Testimonials

With insight and warmth, this book addresses the roots of the growing crisis in children’s emotional functioning, maturation, and capacity to learn: their inability to be in touch with their true feelings. The solutions offered, based on a deep understanding of human development, are intuitive and have the elegance of simplicity. An essential read for educators and for all concerned with the mentoring of our young.
Gabor Maté, MD, CM, Author, Scattered Minds, and Co-author, Hold On To Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers

This book will be your companion. It will give you insight to the roots of ‘misbehaviour’ and anchor you in the power of relationship and play as nature’s life preserver.
Deborah MacNamara, PhD, Author of Rest, Play, Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (or anyone who acts like one)

Educators will find much inspiration and support in this book, one that offers insightful ways to connect with students. This compassionate work is all about respectful relationships, with students and ourselves, to shift negatives into positives. The authors’ developmental and relational knowledge is a boon for relieving anxiety, aggression, and other stressors in our digital era. A comprehensive resource for educators and the students they love.
Raffi Cavoukian, CM, OBC Singer, author, founder of Raffi Foundation For Child Honouring

The work that Hannah Beach and Tamara Neufeld Strijack have done to better understand the emotional needs of children is valuable for educators, parents, friends—indeed all of us with children in our lives. Their comprehensive research and insight will not only further children’s education but will truly reshape how we see emotion in the classroom—as a strength, not a weakness.
The Right Honourable Paul Martin