By Veronica Martin
The teacher yawns and clicks through a monotonous Google Slides presentation. My
finger drums against my desk, and the class gazes across the room lethargically. This is mental
health education: A few times a school year (once a month at most). And I wonder why students
diagnose themselves with anxiety disorder after any sign of stress.
It’s not our fault, we don’t know any better, or anything at all for that matter. I wonder how come
we learn Pythagorean Theorem and trigonometry ratios, but not how to check up on ourselves
or how to memorize mental health hotlines. School is supposedly a safe space, but in what
regards? To what extent? Personally, mental health has never been a struggle for me, but I’ve
witnessed how suppressing one’s emotions by deeming them invalid eats you alive. We’ve been
taught this textbook definition of mental instability, and that any deviation from it is “well-being.”
Human emotion is not a dictionary: it’s intricate, complex, unique.
Our current-- albeit archaic-- mental health curriculum skims shallowly over anxiety and
depression, the two most common mental disorders in teens. While borderline informative,
there’s a whole realm of symptoms and disorders not being addressed: Eating, Schizophrenia,
PTSD, etc. In other words, students are at a loss both objectively and emotionally. Subjectively,
the emotions of adolescents are expected to be interpreted by a handful of rusty counselors,
many of whom know as much about us as we do. For all we know, they’re learning the exact
same mental health curriculum that the students are: fifteen-minute slideshows that briefly
explain a few concepts. What we need is dedicated time to learning about what we’re feeling
and why. Now, there are many ways to implement this, and I think discussions are a great start.
During a designated time for non-curricular education, students should feel able to
discuss what they’re feeling and what it means with others. Many times, we feel alone because
mental malady is surrounded by stigma, making others perceive it as something that needs to
be avoided at all costs, expensive costs. We need to normalize these discussions, and portray
mental health as something that is deserving of attention and, at some points, aid. Before this,
however, what we need is depth. Depth in our curriculum and, in turn, depth in our
understanding. This profound comprehension fuels the discussion, and this is when people
listen.
If you're looking at this collage, you're seeing a composite photograph display featuring sub-par images. You'll see a dog, some weird plants, a pool. Nothing special, and I'm aware. What you're looking at is my outlet: my means of remaining sane, my passion. I found myself feeling alone in middle school, as many do. It shouldn't be like that, but it is. I began photography because I liked finding the bright side and the pretty side, so I took pictures of pretty things. What I'm trying to explain is that everyone needs an outlet: something to keep them going and something to sustain them. This is my tribute to photography, and how it was there for me when the people who were supposed to be (counselors, etc.) weren't
However, this curriculum will take time to plan and implement. After all, it’s a recently
introduced concept to discuss mental health, especially in a school environment. In order to
create this supposed “safe space” to which school is referred, we need to make sure students
feel mentally secure as well. According to the Washington Post, one in five children and youth
have a diagnosable emotional or mental health disorder; However, according to the same
source, only 39 percent of schools have a part or full-time nurse. While the jobs of nurses,
psychologist, and counselors differ technically, they fundamentally do the same job of aiding
students’ educational and psychological journeys through high school. The recommended ratio
of student to counselor is 250:1, yet the national average is 482:1, almost twice the encouraged
amount. With the growing complexity of adolescent mental health, this puts the school system at
a daunting disadvantage.
Obviously, this is just the blatantly obvious aspect of the system that needs change, not
taking into account the many other technical faults the system houses. In its essence, mental
health education --or the lack thereof-- is the root cause and solution to many issues present in
the school system in addition to society as a whole. School and society function as micro and
macrocosms: when you nurture the micro, it’s reflected on the larger scale. We need to nurture
emotionally intelligent beings because the ones in power are those on whose humanity we
depend.
Additionally, administrators must grasp the fact that by prioritizing a safe educational
environment, they fuel their own values in the process: encouraging a reputable student body
and increasing test scores. When students are able to navigate through high school with their
own barriers and capabilities in mind, they can, with more stability, circumvent challenging or
uncomfortable situations the way they see fit. We see that the root of the problem lies in
students’ emotional isolation and lack of motivation, but the current solution relies on disciplining
behavior. We need to build from the ground up, nourishing students’ emotions and then aiding
the development of their character. This is how we embody safety at school: caring for the mind
and seeking or giving help when necessary. Schools are gardens where the seeds are students
and the nourishment is education, both curricular and subjective. When we refine emotional
upbringing, we enrich society with intellectually and emotionally- intelligent beings. When those
in power realize that an all around healthy environment--and later society-- require the work of
the whole, where they once planted these nourished trees, they’ll find a forest.
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