Mental health greatly impacts students during the school year, affecting schoolwork, socialization, and other aspects of daily life. Simple activities like tests, friendships, and sports become an extreme obstacle for those who struggle with disorders such as ADHD, anxiety, OCD, and depression. Students will succeed better in school when their well-being is more important than their test scores. To improve one’s school day, school communities need to prioritize students’ mental health first.
Many mental issues begin early on, greatly influencing how children grow and develop. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, “One in six U.S. youth aged 6-17 experiences a mental health disorder each year, and half of all mental health conditions begin at age 14.” With this many kids and teens struggling, schools need to take action and make a change.
In the past few years, studies have shown that people’s mental health has gotten progressively worse. Due to having no contact with others during COVID-19, people’s mental illnesses grew/developed. “Extreme social isolation during COVID-19 for many young people exacerbated the rate of children’s mental health emergencies. Numerous studies find links between social isolation and anxiety, depression, higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and worse cognitive development among children and adolescents,” as evidence by the Learning Policy Institute. Even though doing well in school is of great importance, it can cause more and more problems, ultimately leading to an extreme issue long-term, which is much more detrimental to a person.
The American Psychological Association also says that during the COVID-19 season, “by nearly every metric, student mental health is worsening. During the 2020–2021 school year, more than 60% of college students met the criteria for at least one mental health problem, according to the Healthy Minds Study, which collects data from 373 campuses nationwide.” This proves how, especially since the pandemic, schools should focus more on students’ mental health rather than solely on how good they do in their classes. If a student begins to decline in a class, the teacher should take note and, instead of being difficult on the student, try to help them.
While a student’s education is a great importance to their future, their mental health should be a bigger priority. If they are struggling with an issue, it can cause them to become mentally ill. This can lead to far worse problems, other than just a grade. Their schoolwork can’t improve until their mental health does, so while schools care about scores, they should take into consideration how their student is behaving and work to fix those issues before their tests.
