“And in the face of demands for perpetual growth in achievement indidcators, addressing the connection of learning to well-being can seem like ‘one more thing’ added to an already overflowing plate” (Weston, K. et al, 2018, pg. 106).
Sometimes it feels as though teachers are the fingers plugging all the holes in the ship before the water takes it down. The problem being we only have so many fingers, and maybe we just need a better ship? As an educator I want to be everything to my students. I understand that our job will sometimes entail being a sensitive listener, a community activist, a safe space, a punching bag, an ally or a resource for social services, justice and more. As a person who believes in young people, I do not have a problem making myself available, learning what I need to learn and doing what I need to do. Yet… I am angry about it, I am frustrated about it, I am resentful. Why must educators be the gatekeepers to all adolescent well-being? Why are we sometimes the last hope for young people? Why if we hold so much value in shaping a young person’s life are we still so undervalued, and underpaid? Why aren’t there more social workers or counselors in school? Why aren’t these professionals available to they entirety of our communities including parents and teachers? Why doesn’t the school day allow for more space to be, to sit with an idea, to sit with each other?
Time and time again we ask the people to do more, the people who are already doing the most, when we should be asking the system to do more, to be better to be there for us. Educators should absolutely commit to growth just as we expect our students too, but we are human, we are one part of the whole that touch a young person’s life. The world expects teachers to be everything, and in return I ask the world to provide us with everything. We need a new ship, we need a new system.
First of all, thank you for bringing up the fact that these expectations are unreasonable. I think that it’s very important for people, especially those with responsibilities to others, to acknowledge their (human) limitations.
I also agree with the sentiment that asking teachers to compensate for the current state of Mental Health in our schools is not a good idea. Educators will burn out under the stress of so much responsibly. Although I think that it is the responsibility of the school system to teach students and model to them the skills necessary to “gatekeep” their own emotional well-being, I agree with you that this responsibility should partially, but not entirely, fall on the current set of educators. To me, holding us responsible for achieving some minimum level of Mental Health Literacy seems like a reasonable expectation. However, whether this expectation of literacy is, by itself, enough to maintain the well-being of our students remains to be seen.
I also agree with you that the our education system, as a whole, should make a drastic change in regard to how they approach the issue of the mental health of the student population. In my opinion, the school system should make an effort to populate schools with a team of Child/Adolescent mental health experts and social workers that is sufficient to meet the needs of their student bodies.