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Yes. I believe that students, perhaps those in middle school but definitely those in high school, should be provided the opportunity to take mental health days off from school. As students enter their teenage years, there are so many different things to think about and manage all at once: schoolwork, activities, sports, hobbies, friendships, and family... The list goes on and on. And so it is often difficult to balance all of these aspects at once. As a result, sometimes many students end up lowering their mental health from their priority list for too long, that they become drained.
But does time stop and wait for them to recharge? No. The world keeps moving forward, and these exhausted students just end up becoming even more exhausted. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), "1 in 6 U.S. youth aged 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year." Additionally, the CDC states that about 20% of high school students have seriously considered attempting suicide. I strongly believe that students should not be driven this far. I believe schools should offer the option for students to take a few days off of school to catch their breath and recharge; an escape route from the loop of exhaustion.
In addition, I believe that schools should host regular mental health awareness activities. Schools should also provide lessons on maintaining good mental health (i.e. coping techniques, time management, prioritization, etc.) I believe this would significantly help students avoid falling into continuous exhaustion and prevent them from needing to use mental health days too frequently.
However, after talking to some Uni friends about mental health days, I noticed a problem that I myself have run into and am not sure how to solve. Although mental health days are offered at Uni, the fear of the amount of work that would be missed and would have to be made up prevents them from being used. Especially since class periods are almost double the length of regular class periods, the amount of learning and work done in each hour can be overwhelming to catch up. This leaves Uni students without much choice. It's either "do it now with the rest of the class" or "make up everything you missed later while learning new topics." Naturally, lots of students lean to the option of continuing to go to school, despite their fatigue. What could be done about this problem of students being afraid to use mental health days? How could mental health days be more accessible to Uni students?
Works Cited
Gaylor EM, Krause KH, Welder LE, et al. Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/su/su7201a6.htm#suggestedcitation. Accessed 11 Dec. 2023.
“Mental Health Conditions.” NAMI, NAMI, www.nami.org/About-Mental-Illness/Mental-Health-Conditions#:~:text=1%20in%2020%20U.S.%20adults,and%2075%25%20by%20age%2024. Accessed 11 Dec. 2023.
The Learning Network. “300 Questions and Images to Inspire Argument Writing.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Feb. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/learning/300-questions-and-images-to-inspire-argument-writing.html.
Awesome Irene, I love this blog post! When you talked with fellow Uni students, I saw that I shared their same fears. Missing a day could mean missing an endless amount of work. This brings up the point (like you said) that mental health days need to be more "giving" to students to be more useful especially since life is so hard to balance as is. -Ana
ReplyDeleteAmazing! I couldn't agree with you more! After being exhausted by schoolwork for weeks upon weeks, I always feel like breaks never come often enough. Students should never be pressured into perfect attendance and mental health days should always be normalized.
ReplyDeleteMental health days are very helpful towards mental health, and there have been multiple times where I considered using one. All schools should supply them (especially high schools). The reason I don't use them isn't because of the work (although it makes sense), its more because I don't want to confront my parents about it.
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