How do we fix it?
I have had a million and one thoughts racing through my head over the past 24 hours. I learned yesterday that a former student of mine committed suicide on Thursday. His birthday would've been today. I can't even begin to imagine what his family is going through and I am seeing my other former students, his friends, processing this whole awful situation. It has got me reflecting on how we got to this point.
This is the second teen that I've known this year that has taken his own life. That is two too many. I never want my students, my friend's children or my own daughter to feel so helpless that they think ending their existence is the only way out. I originally became a teacher because I wanted to help students and make a difference in the world. I am beginning to notice more and more that we are so focused on data, statistics and results that we neglect the mental and emotional well-being of our students.
They are bombarded daily with social media, instant access to all things good and bad and many are lacking the social skills they need to help themselves out of the situations they've gotten into. (I'm not trying to imply that either of the two teens that I knew were affected by any of these. I am simply making observations based on what I've seen in my own classroom. While I knew both of them, I will not begin to pretend that I was aware of their inner psyche, their home life, or their ability to handle their own individual burdens.) I have struggled with how to help my students deal with the unfortunate circumstances that they face on a regular basis. I have had students who've experienced profound loss, have had their parents incarcerated, live with addicts, have become mothers or fathers too soon in their young lives, have been bullied, have lived in abusive homes, have been in foster care or homeless, have had mental illness or been hospitalized for long periods of time...I could go on. My biggest concern is, what are we doing as a society to help our youth get through all of this tough stuff? Our priorities as a school system (in both counties that I've taught in) appear to be based on test scores and data, not the health of the kids in our care for 7 hours a day.
I'm not saying that we as teachers and school staff do not care about our students, but that there isn't time built into our day to help them process what it means to be a kid or a teen in the world today. As an art teacher, I try desperately to give my students tools to cope with what's going on in their heads. I know that when I was younger, books and art gave me an outlet to deal with or escape from the demons that I had in my head. I pray that through drawing, painting, clay and whatever other medium I can incorporate, my students can find some solace.
There are a plethora of reasons why we teachers find it difficult to help every student in our classrooms. My main one being that I have 30 students in many of my classes and I have many with individual learning accommodations to keep track of. When I only get 45 minutes with these kids once a day (sometimes every other day), it is incredibly challenging to check in with each of them. In addition to having over-sized classes, many of us teach out-of-field and one planning period a day doesn't give us much wiggle room for grading their assignments or planning our lessons, let alone trying to gauge where our students are socially, mentally or emotionally. I was incredibly passionate about starting the mentor program at the middle school I work in for my graduate internship. The first two years that I led the program, I was able to pull the students during our extended learning period; however, due to loss of staff and scheduling constraints, I don't think many of us (if any at all) are able to have a flexible EL. This makes mentoring quite difficult if we're going to make it work during school hours. I know that my own mentee has slipped through the cracks a bit this year partly due to me being on maternity leave for 8 weeks and partly due to PLC meetings, me trying to help students get caught up and him wanting to have his own free time during our EL period. I feel incredibly guilty for that, but I know that if we made our students' health and well-being more of a priority than their grades, I would be able to shift my own priorities to accommodate what my students actually NEED.
I feel like I'm babbling a bit, but I'm just really trying to work through a lot of these things. I was talking to my husband about my own mental state and I am starting to feel more and more like that art therapy degree I toyed with obtaining should be my prerogative in my future plans. I always say that I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but I know that I want to make a difference and I'm not sure that my current profession is helping me accomplish that goal. Perhaps I need to consider taking some classes in counseling or psychology...
I have so many ideas about how to improve the current state of our schools and our youth, but I feel like many of them would require a major shift in the pedagogy of the educational profession. I also think we have a ton of work to do as a society in the realm of mental and emotional health, but that is a whole 'nother ball of wax. I don't know that any of my ideas would prevent any one person or student from committing suicide, but I know that if I sit idly by and don't try to do something, I won't be able to live with myself. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people complain about things and don't offer solutions or suggestions on how to fix or improve the situation. I am currently trying to figure out a way to improve things for the kids in my county. I have several ideas that I'm going to organize and bring to the table with my "higher ups." If I can, I will let you know if/how it works out. Thanks for taking the time to continue reading my thoughts. I hope that you know you're important and your life matters.
This is the second teen that I've known this year that has taken his own life. That is two too many. I never want my students, my friend's children or my own daughter to feel so helpless that they think ending their existence is the only way out. I originally became a teacher because I wanted to help students and make a difference in the world. I am beginning to notice more and more that we are so focused on data, statistics and results that we neglect the mental and emotional well-being of our students.
They are bombarded daily with social media, instant access to all things good and bad and many are lacking the social skills they need to help themselves out of the situations they've gotten into. (I'm not trying to imply that either of the two teens that I knew were affected by any of these. I am simply making observations based on what I've seen in my own classroom. While I knew both of them, I will not begin to pretend that I was aware of their inner psyche, their home life, or their ability to handle their own individual burdens.) I have struggled with how to help my students deal with the unfortunate circumstances that they face on a regular basis. I have had students who've experienced profound loss, have had their parents incarcerated, live with addicts, have become mothers or fathers too soon in their young lives, have been bullied, have lived in abusive homes, have been in foster care or homeless, have had mental illness or been hospitalized for long periods of time...I could go on. My biggest concern is, what are we doing as a society to help our youth get through all of this tough stuff? Our priorities as a school system (in both counties that I've taught in) appear to be based on test scores and data, not the health of the kids in our care for 7 hours a day.
I'm not saying that we as teachers and school staff do not care about our students, but that there isn't time built into our day to help them process what it means to be a kid or a teen in the world today. As an art teacher, I try desperately to give my students tools to cope with what's going on in their heads. I know that when I was younger, books and art gave me an outlet to deal with or escape from the demons that I had in my head. I pray that through drawing, painting, clay and whatever other medium I can incorporate, my students can find some solace.
There are a plethora of reasons why we teachers find it difficult to help every student in our classrooms. My main one being that I have 30 students in many of my classes and I have many with individual learning accommodations to keep track of. When I only get 45 minutes with these kids once a day (sometimes every other day), it is incredibly challenging to check in with each of them. In addition to having over-sized classes, many of us teach out-of-field and one planning period a day doesn't give us much wiggle room for grading their assignments or planning our lessons, let alone trying to gauge where our students are socially, mentally or emotionally. I was incredibly passionate about starting the mentor program at the middle school I work in for my graduate internship. The first two years that I led the program, I was able to pull the students during our extended learning period; however, due to loss of staff and scheduling constraints, I don't think many of us (if any at all) are able to have a flexible EL. This makes mentoring quite difficult if we're going to make it work during school hours. I know that my own mentee has slipped through the cracks a bit this year partly due to me being on maternity leave for 8 weeks and partly due to PLC meetings, me trying to help students get caught up and him wanting to have his own free time during our EL period. I feel incredibly guilty for that, but I know that if we made our students' health and well-being more of a priority than their grades, I would be able to shift my own priorities to accommodate what my students actually NEED.
I feel like I'm babbling a bit, but I'm just really trying to work through a lot of these things. I was talking to my husband about my own mental state and I am starting to feel more and more like that art therapy degree I toyed with obtaining should be my prerogative in my future plans. I always say that I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but I know that I want to make a difference and I'm not sure that my current profession is helping me accomplish that goal. Perhaps I need to consider taking some classes in counseling or psychology...
I have so many ideas about how to improve the current state of our schools and our youth, but I feel like many of them would require a major shift in the pedagogy of the educational profession. I also think we have a ton of work to do as a society in the realm of mental and emotional health, but that is a whole 'nother ball of wax. I don't know that any of my ideas would prevent any one person or student from committing suicide, but I know that if I sit idly by and don't try to do something, I won't be able to live with myself. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people complain about things and don't offer solutions or suggestions on how to fix or improve the situation. I am currently trying to figure out a way to improve things for the kids in my county. I have several ideas that I'm going to organize and bring to the table with my "higher ups." If I can, I will let you know if/how it works out. Thanks for taking the time to continue reading my thoughts. I hope that you know you're important and your life matters.
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