Ever since COVID, the news has been awash with concerns about students’ mental health. For good reason. The impacts of two years of terrified isolation and ineffectual online instruction (despite the herculean efforts of educators all over the world) are still manifesting. I mean, our young people witnessed an unfathomable world: One where the adults were not in charge. Where they were just as scared and freaked out and impotent as their children were. Where no one knew what was happening or what to do.
Not developmentally appropriate.
So students are bringing their underdeveloped, adaptive psyches into classrooms. They’re testing the adults there in ways that many teachers have never seen before. “Here!” many students seem to be saying. “Can you handle this? Can you handle me? Can you keep me safe?” And, too often, their conclusion is, “I thought not.”
The testing is super ramped up because the reset students need — reassurance that the right people (adults, not kids) are in charge — is so urgent.
Yes. I’m concerned, like everyone else, about our students. Our young people whose development was so thwarted by COVID.
But my greatest concern is our teachers.
First, because they, too, lived through COVID. With children, elderly parents, and friends. Not knowing who was going to die. Surviving those who did. And taking the hits from a country that reviled them for caring about their own health and the health of their loved ones while also working their asses off to satisfy the needs of their students — and, bonus, the needs of their students’ off-the-charts anxious parents.
Second, because no teacher has been prepared to manage the behaviors many students are bringing into classrooms. Aggression. Disrespect. Bullying. Violence. Behaviors that make sense if you accept that young people coming through our schools grew up in a world where no one was safe. But WHAT THE FUCK? Imagine having to hold 25 students at a time who have learned adults are unreliable and untrustworthy and are therefore constantly testing whether or not you are. Superman couldn’t even do it.
Teaching through Emotions helps teachers develop the skills Superman doesn’t have. By bringing teachers together to examine their crazy classroom experiences with empathic, supportive colleagues and with focused attention on the psychodynamics that led to the crazy experiences in the first place. The work works. The teachers feel better. They reverse burnout and stay in the classroom where we desperately need them. I believe with my whole heart that, especially now, in our mentally ill post-COVID world, in our sick schools, teachers need this support so they can co-create with their students and each other a healthy environment for their students — hell, for everyone — to learn and grow in.
If you know a teacher, give them a big hug today! Our society rests on their good mental health! Then give them a gift subscription to TTE. They will receive inspiring and transformative blog posts, podcast episodes, and Public Service Announcements in their inboxes without lifting a finger. If they want to lift a finger, they’ll have access to an archive of hundreds of posts I’ve written about teacher mental health over the years.
And they’ll receive bonus episodes like the one I published today celebrating World Mental Health Day. In which I tell a shocking story of a sick school. And offer perspective on what went wrong and how to make it right.
Anything we can do to promote and sustain teachers’ mental health will have incalculable, exponentially positive impacts on our children. I can think of no better investment!
Happy World Mental Health Day.