Is the Education System Healthy?

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385 years, 8 months and 20 days. That’s how long school has been around — since April 23, 1635 when the first public school was established. That school, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is still operating. For 385 years, school has been around, however, in this day and age, students are expected to perfect everything no matter the amount of pressure put on, and since our lives have shifted due to unfortunate circumstances, it has taken a major toll on students’ lives.

  In a majority of households, education is a priority and grades must be maintained at a certain level. According to Suicide Prevention Resource Center, “Mental health problems can affect a student’s energy level, concentration, dependability, mental ability, and optimism, hindering performance.” School causes lots of stress and breakdowns from students, especially when parents are reliant on their children to balance school, sports, any extracurricular activities, a social life, and more. When it gets to a point where school feels like a chore, it is draining for the student, and their motivation levels decrease. School no longer becomes enjoyable, it becomes a hassle. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a survey  on students and their mental health state due to school. They proceed to report back that, “Overall, 1 in 6 students had enough symptoms and impairment to meet the criteria for one or more childhood mental disorders.” The key word here is enough. One in six had enough symptoms to actually qualify for a mental disorder, but that does not say that the other five students were not affected. It is not a new discovery that mental health has continued to digress due to school, but there is still nothing being done to prevent these terrible circumstances.

Teachers and parents may think that social media is what is causing all these mental challenges to occur, when in reality, it is school. Behavioral Health EHR states, “Many teens do not get enough sleep, and that affects their mental health and ability to perform academically.” Teens will go countless nights without a good night’s rest, sometimes only getting 5-6 hours of sleep due to the workload given to students by their teachers to complete outside of school. The work given to us now is already considered ‘homework’ due to the fact that we are 100% online learning, so the additional work added may push some students over the edge.  School and grades have taken a huge impact on children’s lives, and are the center point of our lives since we were 4-years-old. 

School will forever be important, but parents continue to be oblivious to that fact that it does cause a lot of emotional distress. If a student is lacking, it is not necessarily because they are lazy and not trying, but because they are lacking motivation, and can be mentally exhausted.

As important as school can be, mental health needs to be as prioritized. The issues that school gives off can result in a life long effect, and overall, is just not healthy for the human body.