All throughout elementary, middle, and high school, we learn math, reading, writing, speech, health, science, and history but what do we learn about our mental health. Mental health has been a hot topic recently and I believe it’s because it seems to be new to us. As we know every generation grew up differently but the same school subjects till seem to stay the same.
20% of adolescents have a mental disorder but would they be able to identify the symptoms (Schwarz, 2009). Most kids will end up having a depressive episode once before they hit adulthood. So what can we do to help prepare them for the anxiety, stress, unexplainable feelings and emotions, and depression we can give them an insight on ways to deal with it early on. Adolescents’ lives can be very stressful as they are trying to understand the physical and emotional changes they are going through. As well as trying to fit in with their peers. Not to mention I believe that at that age it is very difficult to communicate with your parents.
Teachers have such as difficult job and boy many of them are amazing at it but I believe that it could make their job easier behavioral wise if students were educated on their mental health. A class on mental health should be informative but fun at the same time. We should normalize talking about how we’re feeling and what’s going on in our brains because when we don’t it can cause us to act out. If we could put a little bit of psychology in daily lessons as they get older they will have a better understanding of how to deal with their mental health. Children are the future and I believe that we should prepare them for life beyond basic school subjects.
School districts should do a better job of providing programs, classes, or even after-school activities on dealing with mental health. Once we can normalize talking about these situations I believe that children will see how it is okay to feel different emotions sometimes and that they are normal for feeling them. We should also make children aware of signs of depression as we could possibly lower teen suicide rates if we can educate them and persuade them to seek help.
Post author Susan Wile Schwarz, Schwarz, S. W., Project Improving the Odds for Adolescents; & Publication Type Fact Sheet. (n.d.). Adolescent mental health in the United States: Facts for policymakers. NCCP. Retrieved October 28, 2021, from https://www.nccp.org/publication/adolescent-mental-health-in-the-united-states-facts-for-policymakers/.