Students, Teachers, & Mental Health

It's the day before a massive project is due.

The tension and thick enough to slice into slabs, and for a timid student in the back of the room, today is effectively the end of the world.

Yet, this student doesn't care. They stopped caring about two weeks ago when their home life was effectively uprooted and torn apart. And so, this formally straight-A kid will have failed to do anything of any substance for their project and will receive an egregious grade of 17 percent.

Ouch.

The teacher recognizes this oddity; the teacher grows concerned and looks to see if this underwhelming performance is mirrored in this student's other classes. Unsurprisingly, it is.

The teacher has a choice to make: they can enter in that egregious 17 percent as a grade, or they can reach out and ask, "What's going on?"

It's a pretty easy choice, but the majority of teachers put in that 17 percent and watch this timid student without protest, without sound, and without recognition, drown.

Schools must do better.

I am currently a senior in high school. I had a stint where I was overwhelmed with college applications and scholarship essays—I pulled out completely; I stopped dedicating myself to school; my grades suffered. Over time, I got myself up because the chants of a certain teacher who reminded me that grades aren't everything—not even close.

A lot of kids don't have this. A lot of kids are surrounded by adults who fail to mention changes they witness, and adults, when addressed by such changes, fail to care.

I've known cases in which students approach their teaches in honesty and openness, explaining cruel and damaging situations, only to be turned away with a one or two day extension on a single assignment or nothing at all. For students who have esteem and external pressure that are dependent on grades, being turned away by teachers is incredibly disheartening.

All the same, I've known cases in which students approach their teachers and are met with offers of sincerity and to "take all the time you need." Teachers must be like this—having one or two accepting teachers out of seven or eight isn't enough when a student's life begins to fall apart.

Schools have the opportunity to be a stable place of acceptance when a student's life goes astray—and in the span of twelve years, many lives do go astray. So, why aren't schools better prepared?

It seems to be a case of student mental health (falsely) lacking validity. I see teachers all-too-often view student mental health as a byproduct of raging hormones and whatever the hell. They view emotions as overexaggerated, dramatized instances that will pass without acknowledgment and without help. We even have a term for when it hits seniors in a moment of uncertainty about the future and lack of motivation in the present—it's aptly named senioritis. Senioritis is defined as a humorous term meaning, "a supposed affliction of students in their final year of high school or college, characterized by a decline in motivation or performance." A great deal of teachers, and even students, poke at senioritis as some stupid little term to explain why someone received a poor grade on the latest test. Yet, it's a prime example of how student emotional health is pushed aside as unworthy and unimpactful.

Students are not allowed to opt out of life for a week or two—they can take three, four sick days and will soon discover that they can either maintain their grades or they can healthily process their struggles and emotions. Teachers are often given greater leeway when it comes to considering their own mental health, even when experiencing similar situations. Adults in schools are typically allowed to withdraw themselves if their lives begin to shatter. Students, on the other hand, are expected to show up and have a clear separation of their academic and home life.

However, I don't mean to generalize every administrator and teacher in every school as someone who is actively dismissing student mental health. This is far from true—a great deal of teachers strive to help students and go as far to create mental health clubs. Even the barest acts of giving meaningful deadline extensions to those who are going through a great deal goes a long way. Yet, I do mean to say that all teachers must recognize teenage mental health as a problem to be met with much more than an ignored email or an equivalent to saying, "Tough luck," or, "Get over it." Student mental health cannot be considered "less than" or "inferior to" the mental health of anyone else, especially when it comes to where kids spend most of their time—that being in schools.