“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
Harper Lee in her Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird suggested a simple solution to combat ignorance: empathy.
In school, we navigate our way around many people. All of us fight silent battles everyday. Some more than others.
However, it is difficult to talk to, let alone understand every person we come across in the day. Even the best of us can’t practise perpetual kindness.
That is why mental health awareness is a need of today. A low mental health can lead to serious detrimental long-term effects. This includes substance abuse, dropping out of school, unemployment etc.
The best place to begin with awareness would be in the place that matters the most: the classroom.
Factors
Students go through a myriad of problems every day. Problems that range from approaching deadlines to managing their personal life. The responsibility of understanding and helping the student falls upon the teacher.
Competitive Environment
School life is not restricted to academics today. A student participates in extracurriculars, sports, and other activities. Students have begun mapping out their lives at a young age. This can be a good initiative, but it doesn’t come without disadvantages. This overpreparedness amongst peers may generate feelings of inadequacy. Many students struggle to keep up in competitive environments.
Stigma
Students with special needs are met with stigma – amongst their peers and sometimes by their teachers. In order to promote inclusivity, schools always draft policies. However, these policies fail to provide protection to students at the micro level. Exclusion leads to gradual disinterest and demotivation. Efforts should be undertaken to include students, regardless of their identity, in all facets of school life.
Home Environment
It is said that a school should feel like home, and the teachers like parents. For some students, this may be a bitter reality. Many students cannot depend upon support systems at home. This manifests through a student’s behaviour at school. An otherwise bright student may fail to hand in their homework. They might be nodding off in class, refusing to participate in class activities. A difficult environment at home may also constitute a loss of interest in academics.
Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
Social Emotional Learning, or SEL, was developed in the 1960s in the U.S. This school of thought is based upon the principles of equity. It focuses on all aspects of a student’s life – particularly, the emotional and social aspect. SEL aims to enhance academic performance by reducing stress.
Some of the SEL aims as identified by UNESCO are as follows:
- understand and express emotions effectively,
- display empathy and compassion for others,
- respond appropriately, contextually and,
- contribute to broader aims, such as the building of inclusive, just, healthy, peaceful and sustainable societies.
Incorporation of SEL at the academic level will help in facilitating “cognitive, social and emotional, and behavioural dimensions”. These factors are necessary to equip students with a positive attitude.
Lending a hand…
Teachers can be the first ones to spot the symptoms. Here’s what to do, and what to avoid.
Do…
- Encourage open conversation
- Listen carefully
- Keep an eye out
- Provide access to support
Don’t…
- Promote stigma
- Point out a student in the class
- Make assumptions
- Overlook a student’s needs
By integrating happiness in our curriculum, we can build a better future – a better world.