About a decade ago, Emily Torres, an English teacher at Joel E. Ferris High School here was at a loss.
She’d been teaching for about 15 years, and she knew she was a strong instructor. But Torres felt that she wasn’t really reaching her students.
Many carried significant trauma. They’d experienced homelessness, parental substance use. Some were grieving the loss of a caregiver or sibling.
Torres shared her frustrations with a leader who has since left the school. That conversation was the first step in a long process leading up to the creation of the unusual creative writing class she taught in the 2025-26 school year for students who struggled with deep trauma, were coping with mental health challenges, or both.
Once a week, Sean Barrett, a licensed therapist, co-taught with Torres. He helped students connect the course content to what he calls the big six emotions: joy, anger, sadness, fear, curiosity, and shame.
Students are referred to the course by Ferris’ administration, counseling staff, and other teachers. Parents are informed in writing about their child’s participation, including the regular presence of a therapist—although the class itself isn’t therapy.
Much of the classwork matches what you might see in a traditional English class—but with a greater emphasis on choice and creative expression, and assignments that tap into the big six emotions.
Over the years, Torres has received notes from former students telling her the class helped them process a devastating loss, made it so they could talk about their emotions, or even prevented them from dying by suicide.
Education Week interviewed Torres multiple times, both in her classroom here and on Zoom. This Q&A draws from those conversations. It has been edited for clarity and brevity.
You told me that before you created this class you had trouble setting aside your reaction to your students’ emotional turmoil at the end of the workday. I think a lot of teachers can relate to that. Has this helped you?
We all get that savior complex where we want to step in, and we want to save kids and we want to help them. And it doesn’t work. Our burdens become heavier, and the toll it takes on our bodies and our mental health [is real]. And teacher turnover is an example of that.
This feels like I’m doing something better than that. I’m not here to heal them, I’m only here to take care of myself, and when I can model that, and when we can bring someone in to give them the tools [to tackle trauma, it makes a real difference].
When we heal our kids, we heal our communities. I don’t say that dramatically. This is the most important thing I’ve ever done. It’s what I needed. It’s what everyone I bring into that classroom says they needed.
A lot of the class is about helping students process their emotions, their trauma. But it still counts as an English credit. How do you balance those two goals?
To me, it is the most authentic English class I’ve ever taught when it comes to using language to express and to connect.
We’re reading complex texts. We’re relating to the characters. It’s discussion around the theme, and then it’s application of the theme to themselves.
This is the most important thing I've ever done. It's what I needed. It's what everyone I bring into that classroom says they needed.
What we know kids are missing is that emotional component. [Literature] is an easy place to connect to it, and it doesn’t mean that I have to compromise the learning. I am very proud of the rigor. The discussions we have, I would argue, are college-level.
Do you ever worry about what it might be like for your students to go from these very intense, emotional discussions to, say, their algebra class?
I would argue that most of these kids walk these halls not knowing when they’re going to have a moment to sit down and address these big emotions. And that’s what causes a lot of chaos and a lot of anxiety and stress.
It’s just like being an adult and having a weekly therapy session. We know when that’s coming, so we are able to move through the rest of our week knowing that we’re gonna deal with [our emotional challenges] at some point.
The not knowing is what makes you feel chaotic and crazy and stressed and anxious.
How has leading this class affected your teaching?
It helps me be a better teacher in all capacities.
I get to sit among them [each week when a therapist joins the class]. I get to remember what it’s like to be a teenager. I get to revisit myself at that age every week.
It’s no secret the load on teachers—the emotional toll we take, how many kids we carry home, in our heads, in our hearts every day.
[In this class], we’re giving them the skills to deal with their own stuff, so I don’t have to carry it home anymore. We’re really giving them a gift so they can be the heroes of their own story.
