Here are some of the “most important sentences” people in workshops pulled out from their 5-minute free writes.

I have seen violence, (intimidation, bullying, threats) used by teachers in authoritarian classrooms, not only inhibit learning but clearly turning students off and away from all school experiences.

Sometimes it can empower someone to stand up and fight. It can be a cause that brings women together.

Violence can result in ‘dehumanization or loss of spirit’.

I know that violence can paralyze but I am also coming to realize the power of the human spirit to rise above that violence – redemptive is the only work I can think to use – the redemptive quality of the human spirit.

I had no idea the horrors that my students had seen.

Learning skills of staying safe and alive in a culture of violence – when to stay quiet, how to behave, how to protect children/siblings – living in a violent and toxic society.

How can I learn when my brain closes down and all I want to do is run away – I’ve learned to hide it well but it takes a lot of energy and I can’t listen as well.

Victims of violence may perpetuate acts of violence because they may have normalized the acts against them as a survival/copying mechanism.

Historically rooted and systemic violence reflecting the impositions of colonialism, imperialism and patriarchy go vastly unaddressed in learning contexts but are at the heart of the matter.

Need for survival surpasses need for learning during conflict and war – terror occupies all senses – how to learn?

Violence cuts off certain channels of learning, while opening up others.

Violence affects all aspects of one’s life…. this violence causes new ways of learning “resistance and agency.”

The emotional scars of her early experiences have interfered dramatically in her ability to form relationships and even to cope with day to day tasks.

Violence strips a person of respect for oneself and the ability to succeed.

Little sense of who they are, what they should do, why they should do it, or with whom.

The mind closes down and I can’t see or hear, I don’t recognize…

Obedience and silence are still highly prized ‘virtues’ of women.

Subtle violence. Some students don’t have their own money or don’t have a credit card. Student has to use their husband’s credit card with his permission.

Any problem with learning brings back flood of unhappy childhood memories of school failure.

Victims of violence feel that their sense of boundaries are often compromised and their lack of trust impedes their spontaneity or absorption of new material.

The colourful tapestry of life becomes dark, foreboding and very frayed, the joy of learning/being and innocence is lost.

She told her mother in law who told her she knew about the abuse and said it was up to her to try harder – because that’s what she had to do with her husband/his father.

The gate remains closed for women, and we need to understand the heaviness of the gate and the characteristics of the gate keeper to know how to open the gate for women who have experienced violence.

Verbal abuse is abuse nonetheless, though it is believed to be less harmful.

Afraid all afternoon and couldn’t concentrate.

Creates inhibitions in the class when a sudden voice or loud laugh can silence someone and close them off from learning for the moment….it takes time to dissolve the emotional barriers that allow a person to be receptive.