How important is the emotional well-being of our children teens and young adults?
Important enough for us to support?
Many behavioral malfunctions are results of emotional or mental imbalance or challenges.
One cannot talk about emotions without mental health. They are interconnected and are interdependent. You cannot have one without the other.
The mental state is fueled by thoughts and the emotional state by feelings. Feelings are triggered by thoughts and thoughts can also be generated by emotions.
Today my focus is on how we can support our children’s well-being through the school system.
We should begin to prioritize mental and emotional health as much as we do academics. We have guidance counselors in schools to give direction on academics and subject choices based on areas of interest and strength.
Won’t it be amazing to also have therapists oh good in our schools who would help students navigate their emotions and cope better with life’s experiences?
Therapists: trained professionals equipped with tools to understand and navigate mental and emotional issues.
It is easier to raise our children well and to fix them as adults.
Emotions affect every area of life and many times we need support and tools to scale difficult terrains and overcome complex issues.
Having a professional on standby can be life saving. I remember the case of a student in a school who had been labeled a bully. Teachers on students are like when nasty say him. He was quite aggressive, really and acted up in class. He’s grades of course deteriorated and he even had to repeat a class and this only made matters worse.
He didn’t have a single friend in school. He was seen as a lost course.
Then in the second term of the year he repeated, the school hired new teachers and one of them had some formal training in emotional and mental health matters.
And she took a special interest in our special student.
What got her attention was the fact that the boy was always looking unkept; his uniform was the team most of the time his hair uncombed and rough, his shoes scuffy and unpolished etc.
When she inquired about him from other teachers they had nothing positive to say about the young man.
She suspected there was more happening than what people were aware of and she decided to investigate.
Luckily she was his class teacher. The first thing she did was to befriend him. It wasn’t easy because he was not open to anyone.
Then she gave him the responsibility of collecting class assignments and submitting to the teachers. This made him feel useful.
Then she engaged him in a series of conversations and discover that his parents were loud people who didn’t know how to communicate without aggression, even though there was no physical violence.
That was what was responsible for his aggressive manner of communication and behaviour; and consequently getting labeled a bully.
Everyone started to avoid him making him feel victimized and isolated and consequently making him act out rudely and unruly in school.
His parents were also too busy to give him attention all to supervise his hygiene and school preparations and that was why he came to school looking scruffy.
The teacher informed the school management and the parents were invited for an Intervention.
The intervention which involved the parents, the class teacher and the school master yielded positive results.
The parents were referred to a family therapist while the teacher continued to support from the school.
Since she had training and certification and mental and emotional well-being opposition was created for her as the school therapist.
Over the course of months significant changes were noticed. Our young man was neater and also much calmer; and approachable. His grades improved significantly and he even started to make some friends.
Our schools need professionals on ground who would take a deeper look at students and situations.
Imagine if someone with the right skills to observe and take action did not arrive on the scene. This young man would have been lost to the system and gone ahead to perpetrate more of his kind at best. Or much worse by becoming a danger to himself and others.
Everything shouldn’t be about academics or grades in our schools. The mental and emotional health of our students is very important.
The mental and emotional well-being of our students because they are our all right children should be prioritized.
