Having recently left school and gone on to university where I am studying to potentially work in the education system, one thing that I noticed throughout my entire time in education is that lessons on mental health were one of the many things that were absent from the curriculum. As someone who suffers from bad mental health problems herself, this is particularly worrying as the people who have bad mental health feel like they are suffering in silence and those who don't aren't aware of the struggle that they go through day-in and day-out. I believe that if lessons in mental health were a part of the curriculum then everyone would be more aware of why more attention needs to be placed on mental health, and here's why:
One thing that I noticed during my time in school was that there was never any indication of where any of us could go if we were suffering from mental health problems and needed someone to talk to. Whether that be in school or being indicated to other mental health services, I never knew who I could go and talk to when I really needed someone there. Obviously I have friends and family, however I don't necessarily want them knowing the full extent of what I'm going through and how I'm feeling and also felt that I might need someone with more of a professional stance to give me their ideas of some coping methods I could adopt in order to try and help me overcome what I was (and at times still am) going through. I think that if lessons on mental health had been taught in my school then I might have known who I could turn to for help when I really needed it instead of feeling alone in how I was feeling and with no one to turn to.
I also noticed that there was never any real conversation surrounding the issue of mental health problems and it was almost as if no one should ever mention that they have them because then the school would actually have to 'do something' about it. There was plenty of conversation about people dealing with physical problems, such as a broken arm or dislocating their knee, and everyone was always quick to show their sympathies if someone had been hurt and would always want to be the first person to sign the cast, however as soon as anyone displayed any signs of having a mental health problem they were instantly labelled as being weird and no one was interested in being anywhere near them. If we had had at least a couple of lessons on mental health, showing the signs and symptoms and what other people could do to help those with mental health problems, then maybe there would be less of a stigma surrounding this issue and no one would be so quick to judge.
Another reason is that young people dealing with mental health problems is a very real issue. This can be due to things such as exams which create an extreme amount of pressure on young people, despite many deeming them as 'snowflakes' just for saying that they can't cope with the pressure. Well let me tell you that the pressure is real and these so-called 'snowflakes' aren't just making up how much pressure they're under just to try and get people to feel sorry for them. If more lessons on mental health were taught in schools then maybe young people would have a better idea of what it is that they are going through, how they can cope, and the people that they can talk to about it. If young people had this sort of support and guidance being shown to them then maybe they would be able to open up a bigger discussion about it and feel more comfortable talking about their emotions. However it is those people who deem them to be 'snowflakes' and make out that anything that they are dealing with as a lot less important than what others are going through that stop them from having these discussions and feel as though they have to bottle everything up as their emotions are unimportant.
As the majority of people are likely to deal with some form of mental health problem at some point during their lifetime, young people should be fully prepared for this by being taught about mental health in school. After all, isn't school meant to be about teaching children about the world and to prepare them for things they might have to deal with in the future? And surely making them aware of their mental health is more important than teaching them quadratic formulas and Pythagoras theorem (which, by the way, I haven't had to use since sitting my maths GCSE almost three years ago).
I just think that the entire education system needs to have a complete revamp and needs to look at what they are teaching children and whether or not this is actually going to benefit them or not. Maybe some people do use quadratic formulas in their work but I certainly can't really remember what they are and maybe the teaching of these should be saved for the training of the jobs that involve this sort of thing. Whereas mental health is a very real problem that many people deal with on a daily basis and if lessons on this were taught in schools then it would help in raising the awareness of the issues that poor mental health can cause and how this can be helped.
This is a link to get mental health on the school curriculum. At the time of writing this there is currently 186,147 signatures out of a goal of 200,000. I would really appreciate it if you could click on the link and sign it and share it with your followers and once you've done this, if you could comment 'signed' in the comments below so that I can see how many of you have signed it from reading this post. Or if you have already signed it then please feel free to share it with your followers again to try and encourage more people to sign it so that something can be done to get mental health on the school curriculum.
Love Beth xx
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