School Is Failing Us Mentally 

It seems like ever since the beginning of society people decided that if you are properly educated and can prove it you can solve anything you go through. Even though the cost of this is taking years of your life going through constant stress and anxiety dealing with assignments, the pay off should be worth it right ? When you are thinking about it in broader terms, why does every student need to go through stressful rigorous tasks to prove their worth to a group , job, or organization.

I think it gives people with serious mental health issues a disadvantage from the start of their academic journey. Mental health problems can affect a student’s energy level, concentration, dependability, mental ability, and optimism, hindering performance making it even more challenging for students to learn and succeed. In the American College Health Association 2015 survey, college students identified the following mental health issues as negatively impacting their academic performance within the last 12 months. “Almost 30% of students struggle with stress, 22% felt anxiety, while 14% were feeling the signs of depression.”

The consequences of these students don’t just affect them mentally, nore their future. It affects the families and the friends of that person causing a chain reaction of internal struggles. Many middle schools, high schools as well as universities should try to make it more known how to deal and handle these anxieties they are facing because many people are dealing with it and do not know how to handle it. The consequences for these faculties and schools if they don’t make a change will only cause the scenario to be much worse. Some of the poor student retention would cause schools to lose funds as well as having a possibility of not reaching their degree therefore not having valuable skills in competitive markets. 

According to the Center of Disease Control (CDC), more than 1 in every 3 high school students experienced poor mental health during the recent pandemic. Nearly half of students felt persistently sad or hopeless, while about two-thirds of these teenagers had difficulty completing schoolwork. This shows how effective the virus was on people but also on their motor and social skills leading to this rise of depression. 

Another thing to think about when dealing with mental health is the fact that many faculty in the school departments don’t know how to pick out who needs help and who doesn’t. A study from The National Library of Medicine found that 80% of students and youth that need help do not go and get that help. I think something that could help both parties is the guidance department being more on board about current trends in teenagers and their behaviors. However, it has to deal with a wide range of things in dealing with someone’s mental health and treating it. 

Some of the other causes people could say would be social media or the internet. I understand this idea that people are influenced by others when online, when in reality people tend to deal with other stressors that make them feel this way. Most of the stress is caused by academic performance and low self esteem. I believe that the development of students since covid also made many students add to this low self esteem because of the fact that they were isolated without the social interactions we are used to.

Another reason for the way schools fail students is the social expectations they make the students feel. This causes some students to feel they need to live and do things a certain way and just guide someone into having a fixed mindset or a mindset that is closed minded and not open to other options. Academic stress is a leading cause of mental health struggles in students. More than ever, adolescents and young adults feel pressure to go to college, pursue extracurricular activities, excel in their courses, and pass universal, standardized tests. The thing that can also be solved by teachers and students is to find that steady balance so these students don’t feel the overwhelming amount of stress. But this needs to be done by parents, students and faculty to save more children in the future. 

According to the National Alliance of Mental Health (NAMI) “One in six U.S. youth aged 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year, and half of all mental health conditions begin by age 14.”  This shows that many kids are now discovering they may be dealing with a mental disability and it needs to be assisted with when going through school. Sadly about half of youth with mental health conditions received any kind of treatment in the past year.

School-based and school-linked mental health services reduce barriers to youth and families getting needed treatment and support, especially for communities of color and other underserved communities. The schools that struggle the most with mental health are the urban areas with no funding and what seems to be like no hope. Most kids in those areas are having trouble finding that drive and motivation to better themselves. You are a product of your own environment and if you happen to not live in the best society it makes it harder to feel that sense of safety.

The reason why school is failing us mentally has to be dealt with in many regions in order to succeed. The most important aspect is how can students learn at school how to take care of their well being while dealing with assignments and life all together. We cannot limit or eliminate education from people because without that we would have no guidance, just like that people and children need better outlets to express their feelings at school. And possibly find a way to maintain the stress you feel. There are many aspects to look at that can be affecting a student’s mind. Faculty must work together to make a difference and impact on students because their lives are their liability and if they were to ignore or give up those ideas then that would mean the school failed the students future.

References

bibguru helped me find that first one for you, BB:

Consequences of student mental health issues. (n.d.). Sprc.org. Retrieved March 6, 2024, from https://sprc.org/settings/colleges-and-universities/consequences-of-student-mental-health-issues/

https://sprc.org/settings/colleges-and-universities/consequences-of-student-mental-health-issues

Does School Cause Mental Illness? How School Can Affect Youth’s Mental Health 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12202276/