Chatting with Abi
By Abigail Shlimenzon
By Abigail Shlimenzon
Although Pioneer has always been a school that focuses on social aspects of learning such as volunteering and mental health, this year especially there has been a sharp rise in the amount of new programs dedicated to improving students’ mental health. Programs such as Social Emotional Learning were permanently implemented and others, such as Breaking Down the Walls, returned to campus after the pandemic.
However, this new reinvigorated focus on mental health programs within school brings the question: are any of these programs really even helping? For example, SEL takes place on Fridays after fourth period and in order to fit this into the schedule all the classes are cut short and students who leave during fourth or fifth period are forced to stay longer. Staying longer at school is often a mentally draining task, especially at the end of the week. In addition all these mental health programs rely on students feeling comfortable sharing their struggles with peers who they might not know so well or even feel uncomfortable around. This can further harm mental health rather than improving it, by creating feelings of anxiety and even stress.
I believe that the best way schools can help improve students’ mental health is not by providing “group therapy” sessions, but rather giving them further resources to help alleviate academic stress, such as extra work time or even class studying sessions. Mental health is a really important topic that students and teachers should be educated on, however I think that the best mental health support schools can provide for students is in the academic field.
However, this new reinvigorated focus on mental health programs within school brings the question: are any of these programs really even helping? For example, SEL takes place on Fridays after fourth period and in order to fit this into the schedule all the classes are cut short and students who leave during fourth or fifth period are forced to stay longer. Staying longer at school is often a mentally draining task, especially at the end of the week. In addition all these mental health programs rely on students feeling comfortable sharing their struggles with peers who they might not know so well or even feel uncomfortable around. This can further harm mental health rather than improving it, by creating feelings of anxiety and even stress.
I believe that the best way schools can help improve students’ mental health is not by providing “group therapy” sessions, but rather giving them further resources to help alleviate academic stress, such as extra work time or even class studying sessions. Mental health is a really important topic that students and teachers should be educated on, however I think that the best mental health support schools can provide for students is in the academic field.