Let's Act Now!
Let's stop this potential mental health crisis......now!
The fact that I haven’t written a blog for quite some time but have decided to type this today, will hopefully emphasise how important I feel this topic is, and how urgently it needs addressing.
Mental health is one of those subjects that people either feel passionate about or that is given the ‘raised eyes’ treatment and dismissed. No matter which of these categories you fall into, I urge you to read on; I will keep it short and to the point.
I have been a private tutor for nearly three decades and as such, have worked with a great many amazing teenagers for whom school has been a struggle. However,……… I have never before been faced with so many youngsters quite literally at breaking point.
This past year has been tough for so many people; this has been well documented. Also, well publicised has been adult opinion of the potential effects of school closures on our young folk. However,……….never did I foresee the damage to the minds of these amazing youngsters that is happening right now. Today!
I have numerous pupils buckling under the barrage of work being sent their way. Many are staying up during the night to complete schoolwork given out that day and due at midnight! Most spend their days copying power point slides into jotters (the new ‘learning’ for many) then spend their evenings and nights completing homework that feels impossible in the absence of ‘proper’ teaching. Some are then receiving extremely derogatory comments from teachers about the standard of their work, after spending hours and hours on it; at times such as 1:30AM……..I have seen the screenshots!
Of course, there are also pupils who are being given live lessons and work to be completed during ‘school hours’, and who are having private catch-ups with staff to make sure they are ok. Thank you so much to these amazing, dedicated and compassionate teachers……you know who you are!
However, I am seriously concerned by the alarming ‘state’ of the majority of my pupils and I am quite literally watching fine, young students crumble and mentally disintegrate on the other side of my screen. These pupils are terrified to miss submitting work in case it affects their predicated grades…….some have been told that this is a consequence they will face. These youngsters are sitting in front of a screen for up to 16 hours a day. I feel helpless but I need to try and do something. Helping them with their Biology just doesn’t seem enough anymore.
Many teachers have their own set of complications at the moment, and this I understand, but somebody, possibly at national level needs to address this urgently. I believe that home learning could have been designed as a positive experience for our young learners if it had been properly managed centrally; this I believe would have better supported staff and pupils alike. Has anyone asked the pupils what would be best for them; they need their voices heard.
We are about to face a new crisis. A mental health crisis. A crisis of such damaging proportions for our youngsters, that I feel will be impossible to undo.
UNLESS WE ACT NOW!
