Teachers Should Be More Concerned For Students' Mental Health Than Their Pass Rates

Teachers Should Be More Concerned For Students' Mental Health Than Their Pass Rates

This conversation should've been had a long time ago.

Simone Umba
Simone Umba Nov 1, 2018
85
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I'm a senior in college and have had a variety of teachers in my years in school. There are the ones who want to teach more than their curriculum to their students and others who just do the standard protocol and make the minimum past rate for the year. But something that I've been pondering on for a while now.

"Do teachers/professors care about the mental health of their students?"


I (Almost) Dropped Out of College www.youtube.com


With midterms going on for the entire fall season, students have pushed themselves to their breaking point. They've skipped meals, lost hours of sleep, and even skipped classes or cut back on work to have more hours to study since there aren't more than 24 hours in a day. I've had weeks where I had three exams in one week, on some occasions back to back as if it was finals week. Millennials are looked at as "The Lazy Generation" but that is untrue. We are "The Hustle Generation" because nothing is easy for us and we know that. We're full-time students, work part-time and even full-time jobs, outside clubs, internships, some of us having our own families. College isn't about just partying and getting out in four years time. But the reality is that it isn't that at all.


The Kids Are Not All Right: College Mental Health Needs an Intervention www.youtube.com


College campuses have started offering student counseling in recent years due to the high rising number in mental health statistics in college students in the mental health sector. Recent Statistics show that one out of every four students is diagnosed with a mental illness. The top five issues found in college students include Depression, Anxiety, Addiction, Eating Disorders, and Suicide. But it feels as though teachers and professors have been ignoring these facts for years. We constantly ask them why do they torture us like this or didn't they go through the same struggle in college so why would you do the same to your own students.

We come home on weekends and holiday breaks and we're are strangers to the people around us. Our friends see how we've lost interested in being outside and doing activities. Our parents see that the energy and faith in yourself are gone and that depression has taken over their bodies and minds. They underestimated what college would do to you after one semester, one year, or three years. You're haven't been physically injured but have been mentally and emotionally beaten by your surroundings.


College Student Opens Up About Depression And Anxiety www.youtube.com

In a poll survey, 84% of college students feel as though their professors don't care about students mental stability and ability to go about completing assignments. 46% have experienced anxiety on more than one occasion and 67% are currently going through depression and only 34% is being treated for it. I asked several students this question and got a variety of answers.

"Their jobs are to educate. They don't care about our well being at all."

"I've had professors give us three hours worth of homework over thanksgiving break, the one week in the semester that is my actual vacation from school."

"Mental health is just as important as physical health."

"I had two exams back to back in the same week, one on Thursday and one on Friday. I asked one of my professors if I could take the exam a day early so I could have time to study for both and he said it's not his job to accommodate for "my schedule". I wasn't asking for a free pass. I just asked if I could take a test early rather than take a test that I know i won't be fully focused or prepared for."

"If a student isn't okay mentally they can't learn."

"They keep asking why our class average is getting lower with every exam, but at the same time they don't realize they're making the material hard enough so we don't pass at all."

"Teachers need to keep in check what is going on with them in class as well as at home."

"I feel like professors don't understand what we go through mentally and it's something we can't just push to the side."

"They think their class should be our number one priority like we don't have 15 hours of other classes to worry about."

"The only reason for a professor to cancel class is when there's a state of emergency and they still don't want to cancel class when the school says so."

"Suicide is occurring at a younger age."

"I asked my professor if I could take an exam the following week because my dad had passed away over the weekend and she didn't believe me. I told her I wasn't in the mental capacity to be in school and all she could say was that it isn't her priority to give a student special treatment. When I told my mom, she came straight down to the school to come to get me and told my teacher off for not believing me. The woman just lost her husband so she didn't want her daughter to go through an even more tougher time."


So where do we go from here? We need to have an open dialogue and conversation with both sides and come to an understanding where both parties can understand where the other is coming from. Because if we don't come to an understanding, neither of these groups are going to win int he ends and it will just be a mess for everyone and this cycle will continue to the point where the college will be seen as a place that will mentally disable you.

Remember that Mental Health Is Just As Important As Physical Health.

If you or anyone you know is currently struggling with mental illness, don't be afraid of seeking help or treatment.

Simone Umba
Simone Umba Nov 1, 2018
At University of West Georgia

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To The Person Who Feels Suicidal But Doesn't Want To Die

Suicidal thoughts are not black and white.
Mia McLaughlin
Mia McLaughlin Nov 12, 2017
2625577
views

Everyone assumes that if you have suicidal thoughts that means you want to die.

From an outside perspective, suicidal thoughts are rarely looked into deeper than the surface level. Either you have suicidal thoughts and you want to die, or you don't have suicidal thoughts and you want to live. What most people don't understand is that people live in between those two statements, I for one am one of them.

I've had suicidal thoughts since I was a kid.

My first recollection of it was when I came home after school one day and got in trouble, and while I was just sitting in the dining room I kept thinking, “I wonder what it would be like to take a knife from the kitchen and just shove it into my stomach." I didn't want to die, or even hurt myself for that matter. But those thoughts haven't stopped since.

I've thought about going into the bathroom and taking every single pill I could find and just drifting to sleep and never waking back up, I've thought about hurting myself to take the pain away, just a few days ago on my way to work I thought about driving my car straight into a tree. But I didn't. Why? Because even though that urge was so strong, I didn't want to die. I still don't, I don't want my life to end.

I don't think I've ever told anyone about these feelings. I don't want others to worry because the first thing anyone thinks when you tell them you have thoughts about hurting or killing yourself is that you're absolutely going to do it and they begin to panic. Yes, I have suicidal thoughts, but I don't want to die.

It's a confusing feeling, it's a scary feeling.

When the depression takes over you feel like you aren't in control. It's like you're drowning.

Every bad memory, every single thing that hurt you, every bad thing you've ever done comes back and grabs you by the ankle and drags you back under the water just as you're about the reach the surface. It's suffocating and not being able to do anything about it.

The hardest part is you never know when these thoughts are going to come. Some days you're just so happy and can't believe how good your life is, and the very next day you could be alone in a dark room unable to see because of the tears welling up in your eyes and thinking you'd be better off dead.

You feel alone, you feel like a burden to everyone around you, you feel like the world would be better off without you. I wish it was something I could just turn off but I can't, no matter how hard I try.

These feelings come in waves.

It feels like you're swimming and the sun is shining and you're having a great time until a wave comes and sucks you under into the darkness of the water. No matter how hard you try to reach the surface again a new wave comes and hits you back under again, and again, and again.

And then it just stops.

But you never know when the next wave is going to come. You never know when you're going to be sucked back under.

I always wondered if I was the only one like this.

It didn't make any sense to me, how did I think about suicide so often but not want to die? But I was thinking about it in black and white, I thought I wasn't allowed to have those feelings since I wasn't going to act on them. But then I read articles much like this one and I realized I'm not the only one. Suicidal thoughts aren't black and white, and my feelings are valid.

To everyone who feels this way, you aren't alone.

I thought I was for the longest time, I thought I was the only one who felt this way and I didn't understand how I could feel this way. But please, I implore you to talk to someone, anyone, about the way you're feeling, whether it be a family member, significant other, a friend, a therapist.

My biggest mistake all these years was never telling anyone how I feel in fear that they would either brush me off because “who could be suicidal but not want to die?" or panic and try to commit me to a hospital or something. Writing this article has been the greatest feeling of relief I've felt in a long time, talking about it helps. I know it's scary to tell people how you're feeling, but you're not alone and you don't have to go through this alone.

Suicidal thoughts aren't black and white, your feelings are valid, and there are people here for you. You are not alone.

If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline — 1-800-273-8255


Cover Image Credit: BengaliClicker
Mia McLaughlin
Mia McLaughlin Nov 12, 2017
At Michigan State University

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Sometimes "Out With The Old In With The New" Isn't the Best thing

We can't lose touch of the simpler things in life

Carley Neer
Carley Neer Jun 18, 2019
86
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When I think about how much has changed and how much my world has developed since I was little, I get mind boggled realizing how different things are. I work at a restaurant in the city that I grew up in and I see famillies come and go for dinner every night. They all seem the same. The parents will walk in, check in with the hostesses and wait to be seated. If they're asked to wait, the kids sit by their parents sides playing on phones that are probably too young to have. I understand that waiting can get tedious and boring. By the time that they would sit down, I'd imagine that they would put down the devices and engage in some good old fashion conversation. I was wrong. It made me sad to see kids eating dinners with their families with zero interaction. When I was younger, I enjoyed the quality conversations I would have with my family when we got breaks from our all very hectic schedules. It's amazing how much technology has advanced, but sometimes, I believe that we might rely on it too much.

Seems like more and more things are becoming industrialized. Those "mom and pop" shops are closing down due to corporate companies buying the land. I have enough Walmart and Targets in a ten minute radius from me. Sure, places like these carry necessities are important, but when local Nurseries are closed down in order to build a new gas station, it just becomes sad. As things progress more, the more we lose touch of our roots. The places that make home special and different. The moments we have as a kid that don't involve a light on our face. Modernism is a powerful and amazing thing but we need to take a step back and reevaluate what we hold closest to us.

All in all, as we continue to develop, I will continue to advocate for the simpler moments and the simpler times. I don't think my kids will need iPhones right out of elementary school, I'll continue to visit the same hometown shops and give them as much business as possible, I'll always ask if he kids want coloring sheets at the dinner table. Although these small things might not matter in our everyday new world, they matter to me. I will always try to have so much fun that I forget to document things with my phone. The laughter and memories without the technology present. Those are the moments worth remembering.

Carley Neer
Carley Neer Jun 18, 2019
At University of Central Florida

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