Hansen started out in the Army flying medevac in the first Gulf War. “It was a fantastic job. I loved it,” he said.

But he was part of military cutbacks, then found himself managing a service company that ran shopping centers, such as Seattle Premium Outlets on the Tulalip Reservation. When the economy went sour he switched to running banks. When he was told to cut workers’ pay he decided to change careers. “I dreaded going to work,” he said.

He decided to get back into what he loved, medicine, by becoming a nurse. He enrolled at Everett Community College and was invited to participate in their Honors program.

Hansen, 46, and a father of four, took a diversity class and decided to do a research paper on the old boarding schools for the Tulalip Tribes. He  was shocked to find out the impact the boarding schools had on their educational system and culture.

Students would actually run away and die trying to get back to their families. There was a 100 percent rape rate, Hansen said.

“Save the man, but kill the Indian” and make them like whites, Hansen said was the philosophy at the boarding schools. “That’s led to a lack of trust for generations of families.”

He said there are still remnants of an old boarding school on a Tulalip beach. Ironically, their Native American culture is now taught there.

Once Hansen learned about the issue, he decided to do something about it. He came up with an event to help educators work with high-risk tribal children.

“They have to know what they are getting into,” he said of the teachers, adding if they are prepared they won’t get burned out after a year or two.

He was encouraged to do the project by his wife, Corina, who teaches at Quil Ceda Tulalip and Liberty elementary schools.

Hansen put on his first “Educating the Whole Child” conference last summer, and another is planned in August. About 100 teachers attended from eight school districts last summer.

Topics included:

•Compassionate schools remove barriers to help students.

•Analyze data to plan lessons to ensure all students will grow.

•Help students understand they have the capacity to learn and improve.

•Integrate local culture into the classroom.

•Teaching with poverty in mind.

•Teaching tribal history can contribute to the healing of families.

Two of the teachers who attended said they got a lot out of the conference.

“The workshop really helped start my school year off right,” teacher Kat O’Brien said. “This workshop helped me see past academics and to help my students keep calm, help keep them motivated, and showed me how to bring the Coast Salish culture into my classroom.”

Cayla Paustain said the conference helped her understand the many factors outside of the classroom that influence a child’s learning.

“It made it clear the importance of having a connection to our students’ home lives and what we teach in the classroom,” Paustain said. “Our children might be facing a variety of struggles, whether it be financial difficulties, home-life environments or historical trauma. The conference helped open the door and start a conversation about the students in our classroom and how we can think about their education in a new way.”

O’Brien said a class she took on calming strategies helped not only her students, but herself.

“My students use these strategies when they are upset. Also, when someone in class is upset, I see other students using calming strategies to help keep themselves calm,” O’Brien said. “It’s helped me keep calm also. Teaching is stressful. When I begin to feel frustrated, I’ll let my students know how I’m feeling and tell them what strategy I’m going to use to calm myself down.”

Paustain showed compassion by allowing students to take breaks in a safe spot in the classroom.

O’Brien also liked a class she took on teaching that mistakes are a chance for people to learn.

“At the beginning of the year, I had a lot of students who would give up if something was too hard or if they made a mistake,” she said, adding the entire school had that mindset. To change it, the school had to talk about it every day, “teaching them that without hard work, we would never grow.”

O’Brien gave an example of a boy who was in tears at the start of the year when he didn’t get something. But about mid-year, “his mindset totally changed. If he made a mistake he would tell me, ‘That’s OK. I can do it!’ “

Both of the teachers learned of the importance of teaching culture.

O’Brien learned that the Tulalip Tribe Lushootseed language is struggling to survive.

“I brought the language into my classroom, just basic words and phrases such as, stand up, sit down, line up, walk, please be quiet, etc. The kids are now using Lushootseed with each other,” she said.

Paustain also used that language, along with traditional Native American tales in read alouds and to learn about character traits.

“We can look at these different concepts and thoughts, and rethink the way we are teaching. Instead of expecting students to fit to the way we are teaching, we can change our teaching to fit the needs of our students,” Paustain said.

Hansen hopes to add a class this year in response to the deadly shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School last fall.

A class on trauma would help teachers who burned out on empathy overload.

“Teachers are the first line of defense, after the family,” Hansen said. “It was high-stress for them, not just the kids. They have to remember to stay healthy themselves.”

One of the hardest parts for teachers was not knowing how long it would take for different students to heal. “They didn’t know what the kids were going through,” he said.

Hansen hopes to reach even more people this year with the program through a DVD EvCC is going to produce.

Quil Ceda Tulalip Principal Anthony Craig helped Hansen with the topics and speakers last year. School and tribal leaders gave strategies on educating the whole child, not just for academics, but for emotional and social needs, too.

He said this year’s conference will deal a lot with healing.

“It’s been a rough year emotionally, and school can be a place of healing,” Craig said.

Whether a student is Native American, Russian, Latino or European, they need to embrace and understand their ethnic identity and culture, he added. Once all students learn to self-manage their emotions, they are better suited to excel in other areas of life, such as academics.

Hansen said he doesn’t think working with this issue in education is that far off from his training to be a nurse. “In nursing you have to have a big heart and treat the whole person,” he said.

In both, he is learning that culture impacts people.

“Culture doesn’t stop at a particular line,” he said, adding no male nurses were allowed when a Muslim woman gave birth. Even her husband wasn’t allowed in the room.

Hansen said his children go to school at Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary. He said even though test scores are not high there he considers it to be a great school.

“A lot of people don’t look at the whole picture,” he said.