In a world where children are beset by violence and stress, this book provides educators with advice on how to construct therapeutic learning environments for all children. This is a book about integrating preventive mental health practice into public schools (preschool through grade 5). The author, a psychotherapist, discusses the mandate for violence prevention and offers an intervention framework for teachers, administrators, and school-based clinicians who want to improve the emotional climate in their school. This volume: helps educators read the signs of distress or problematic social/emotional development as they are likely to manifest themselves in the school setting; introduces a practice model that calls for strengthened teacher-child connections; addresses, in separate chapters, the roles of the teacher, principal, and school-based clinician, providing guidance and effective strategies for each; demonstrates that interventions can be done effectively by existing school personnel; describes a project to facilitate teacher gathering of psycho-social history that can be used to inform constructive curricular practice; poses compelling questions for policymakers, including concerns about the effect that the current focus on standards and test scores is having on the emotional tone of schools; and includes a chapter addressing what we've learned from the recent tragic events of September 11th in New York City. (Contains 58 references.) (GCP)