Mental Health

I remember the day clearly, my student asked me what did I do when I found out one of our students had committed suicide.  As I told her, that I went into my younger son’s room and hugged him, I began fighting back the tears.  She came over to comfort me which was not exactly the behavior that our crisis team told us to follow.   I think however that the kids needed to see that I was human, that life was not going on like nothing happened and that the adults like students were really hurting.

A year later I found myself going to a new school embracing the work of Angela Duckworth more here and Martin Seligman flourish.  While I was teaching economics I was taking the time to have students write down  three good things that happened to them within the last 24 hours, share my three good things, put out a gratitude box, write gratitude letters, and  discuss vulnerability.  I wanted my students to master the content knowledge but more importantly walk away with skills that they can use for the rest of their life.

Our county changed our schedule in my second or third year at my present school.  While I disagreed with the change in scheduling it opened the opportunity for students to take more electives.  One of my strengths in the business world was taking bad corporate decisions and making them work for me.  I thought this was a perfect situation to do that and I proposed to teach an elective called “Positive Psychology” which was the science of how humans flourish.  My thoughts were that this class would be helpful for all students in transitioning from middle school to high school, while giving them skills to help them throughout their high school career.  What made it perfect is that all students would have an extra period to take it since we were going from seven to eight periods.

I was asked to present to our leadership team what this new course would entail.  I was surprised when some of them did not think our smartest kids needed this type of class.  It was almost like A’s meant happiness which I knew was not always true.  Some of them thought that in their departments the teachers were very positive.  Others thought that if we mandated this elective that some of their electives would not get enough support.  Still by the end of the discussion I thought we were a go.

I remember when the principal called me into her office to tell me that the leadership team did not think the course was worth doing.  I was totally shocked.  How can the leaders of our school not think that these skills were important for our students to learn?  In retrospect I now realize that I did not do a good job in presenting this proposal to the team and that our school was not ready for the change.

What is also important is to try to figure out how to continue to try to make the system better even when you are not supported.  We started a character group which consists of a group of teachers who meet to discuss issues about character.  This group also exchanges e-mails and hopefully passes these messages onto their students.  So while formally we did not get the class hopefully the message is moving throughout the school

A couple of years ago one of my former students wrote me an e-mail telling me, how her, very competitive, college was more compassionate than our high school.  How they seemed to care more about her well-being than our high school.  I remember how sad that made me and how I felt that I had let her down.  I thought back to my proposal of positive psychology and how these classes had become some of the most popular classes at many of our Ivy League schools.  How kids really did want to learn how to be happy.

Our countries schools have faced many crises since my student killed herself.  We have had school shootings, increase in anxiety and depression among students.   When these events happen we are very sad but it seems that nothing really ever changes.  Resources are not put to fixing the problems.

So what will get our schools to value our mental health in a way that we value our academic well-being?  I truly believe that the change in our school system will come from the generation that I teach today.  Some of them will become teachers, others will be parent advocates, while others will just be friends of education.  I think this is a generation of change which will make our world a better place on many different fronts.

Remember Happiness is the ultimate currency.  Think about what you are trading it for.

As always your feedback is appreciated.