Nowadays, Mental health is a big thing that people of all ages deal with in daily life. The biggest thing about mental health is awareness. You need to be aware of your thoughts and emotions but many people try to ignore it or do other things with it. Other people may disagree with me, but it's not just teens that experience dealing with mental health, but even teachers, students or anyone can experience it. We should end the stigma of mental health and normalize anything having to do with mental health.
What is mental health?
Mental health is something that can affect you physically, mentally, emotionally, physiologically, and socially. If you have a good mental state then you will have a better physical health, if you have a bad mental state you will have a worse physical health so, your mental health can affect you negatively or positively. Mental Health can mean something different to each individual person on this earth, for me mental health is your thoughts and feelings. “Mental health means being aware of and taking gentle care of your mind” Mrs Ghent stated. You should always take care of your mind and be cautious with it, it gets you places and lets you live. There are other opinions such as “Staying healthy mentally” My friend Kamdyn Powell stated. “ Mental health to me is emotional health, how our mentality is set up, healthy or not.” My friend Gabriela Alvarez said. Lastly, “Mental health means being able to deal with life's situations, both good and bad, using healthy coping skills.” A math teacher named Mrs. McCue. These are all good definitions of what mental health is. Everyone will have different views, thoughts and feelings about it.
How does school affect students' mental health?
The SPARK lessons at ITMS are good, but we should get mental health days. So, we could take a break, and have some time to ourselves to take care of ourselves. “It's draining my mental health slowly but surely.” My friend Alex Batsch stated after I asked how school affects their mental health. This can be fixed if schools start later so we have more time for sleep or anything else, and have mental health days so students cannot feel like this. It can end up affecting us physically. For example, we may lose sleep, catch chronic diseases, have an urge to vape or smoke, and less access to health care. Other students have said “ For me it causes me a lot of stress, deadlines mostly, and anxiety, and mostly pressure of having good grades. “ “It can be stressful I guess.” A lot of what I've gotten from students is that school can be stressful and pressuring. In school, you have to get at least decent grades to be able to go to college and get a degree, then have a career and so on, so students have to take time out of their own time to study for tests and do homework. It's a lot, to say the least, and students have to work towards a better future for themself but it could impact their mental health.
How does school affect teachers' mental health?
The teachers also have to deal with their mental health “ It took me a few years into teaching to find a balance. Teaching can take its toll on mental health.” My science teacher Mrs. Ghent stated. “Teaching affects my mental in both goodand bad ways. Being a teacher means spending a lot of your extra time making sure you have all the resources ready for each day of class. Being a good math teacher also means sometimes staying late or coming in early to tutor students who need extra help. This can all add up to many extra work hours where you don't get paid, which can bring on stress, both at home and at school. But, getting to spend each day with kids I truly love makes it all worth it and I can truly say I spend most of my day happy. The laughs and fun I have with my students balances out that stress and brings positivity to my every day.” See, students don't just deal with mental health, so do the teachers. Teaching can be a lot, having to make lesson plans and taking time to grade papers and have to deal with disrespect by students. Then having to stay back after school or come in early to help students with their work. Its a lot for them too than people take into consideration. Being a teacher can have bad negative effects on teachers' mental health. But, it could also have a positive effects. Meaning, teachers can do what they love, well if they love teaching, teach and help students and just be around students. This explains my point, anyone at any age can deal with mental health and feel the way they do no matter what age!
How does everyone feel about the SPARK mental health lessons?
SPARK mental health lessons are shown almost every Wednesday in 2nd period. Everyone,
students and teachers and staff could have different opinions and disagree or agree with each other and that's okay. First let's see how students think about it. “ Kind of boring, not really helpful, and not interesting.” My friend Alex Batsch said. The mental health lessons don't really seem to catch a lot of students' attention and seem kinda boring and unfortunately students are getting more awareness by it. “Some topics are sensitive so my teacher lets me stay out of some, I feel barely anyone listens to what they're talking about, but the people that do learn a lot.” My friend Gabriela Alvarez said. It can also be hard for students to do the mental lessons because it could trigger them and make them upset. And students don't really pay attention unfortunately because it doesn't interest them. Overall, I've gotten from students that its boring and doesn't really help and can be sensitive. Teachers should also have a view as they share it with the class. “ Ia m grateful we have them. It would've helped me and my friends at this age. I want to be able to have an open dialogue with my students about their mental health and where they can go for help. I always have the crisis text line number on my board for the students that don't feel comfortable reaching out face to face. “ My science teacher Mrs Ghent stated. Mrs Ghent thinks positively about the mental health topics and we should be grateful we
have them because at least ITMS is putting in the effort to help students with their mental
health.“Im conflicted on this one. I think that mental health is very important and that the facts need to be delivered to students. However, I wish that they kids were allowed to discuss more or at least interact with the content in some way besides slideshows and videos. Sometimes I feel like they tune it out and miss very important stuff because it's not delivered in a more interactive way. So, in short, I would say the info presented is vital, but the way it's delivered, in my opinion, isn't the best way” I agree that the mental health should be interactive so the students are more invested in it, and others may disagree with me and the students and teachers ive interview, but here we have it.
Mental health is something that people at any age can deal with. It can be a lot or a little sometimes. Overall, people should take their own mental health and others into consideration. So, they can really understand their thoughts and feelings and how others might be thinking and feeling. What I'm trying to say is normalize and end the stigma of mental health.
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