We know students cannot possibly learn to their fullest potential when they are exhausted, stressed, not well, fueled by Hot Cheetos, or in the midst of crisis.
Though many say the classroom is not the place to address such issues, the fact is that students often do not get such guidance elsewhere, and this directly impacts their ability to focus and learn.
It is therefore important for schools to purposefully help students build mental and physical resiliency skills so they are able to fully access the curriculum and thrive in and out of the classroom.
What might this look like on a practical level?
Building Mental Health Resiliency
Students enter our classes with a lifetime of compiled . All too often, my inner-city students face violence, domestic abuse, rape, loss, substance abuse, isolation, and separation. Many students are in states of perpetual fight, flight, or freeze as major- and micro-traumas emerge in their lives. Not knowing how to process their traumas may cause students to feel emotionally numb, lash out, or disconnect from their bodies or the world around them. Without releasing or processing occurrences, they may stay in a perpetual state of as trauma after trauma accrues.
Efforts to build mental health resiliency can help students empower themselves with tools to navigate life, show them they鈥檙e not alone, and reduce stigmas. This resiliency can be fluidly as something that adds personalized depth to the curriculum. Here are a few things that worked for me this year as I tried to build students鈥� mental health resiliency in my classroom:
鈥� Curricular units, texts, projects, and guest speakers that incorporate resilient themes such as decision-making, trauma, and identity. I鈥檝e found texts such as Daring Greatly, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can鈥檛 Stop Talking, and Malcolm Gladwell鈥檚 Blink to be particularly effective in helping students navigate life. One student said reading Daring Greatly this year 鈥渉elped me realize that it鈥檚 okay to show my emotions ... helped me conquer many of my fears.鈥� Students also directly express and transform their narratives through projects where they write and share personal stories or learn about topics impacting them, their families, and their communities. Of our with a Los Angeles nonprofit that builds community-wide partnerships, one student said: 鈥淚t was really relatable towards what I was going through ... [It] has given me knowledge and resources that I can go to in order to help these problems.鈥�
鈥� Opportunities for so students can build outlets to process their lives and emotions. This year, my sophomores the Getty Center and the arts writing center 826LA for a photography exhibition A student said the experience 鈥渉elped me look deeper inside myself ... to let myself, and others, in to help me figure it out.鈥�
鈥� Teaching students tools to mitigate stressors through self-awareness. This can include mindfulness at the start and end of class, pausing during emotionally-charged moments, noticing behavior patterns, reflective journaling, and learning how to have healthy discussions on charged topics.
Creating Purpose and Connection
Structuring opportunities for students to build purpose and connection at the classroom and school levels communicates to them that they are important and their lives matters.
These protective factors help mitigate risk factors that can impede a student鈥檚 ability to thrive. While I can鈥檛 control the number of risk factors my students face outside the classroom, I can aspire to create an environment where every student feels connected and important. Some ideas about how to do this include:
鈥� Creating opportunities for students to build relationships with their peers through purposeful grouping and structured interactions. This can help build a class and school culture where everyone is important and has something special to offer. This year, each student had a specific job and role in my classroom. One said of the experience: 鈥淗aving a job has made me aware of how important everyone is to the class.鈥�
鈥�Opportunities for students to join and lead clubs, sports, programs, or volunteer options where they can make positive contributions. This can also be embedded in an where students examine their own roles in improving their communities.
鈥�Defining mission statements where students create an individual or shared purpose. This can include a dialogue on what this means in the context of their future self and family legacy.
Encouraging Physical Health
I know if my students are not feeling well, they cannot learn to their deepest capacity. This is particularly urgent in light of statistics that are projected to develop diabetes in their lifetime, in a generation that is on track to have a shorter lifespan than their parents. Encouraging these five straightforward foundations of health can change their capacity to learn in the classroom and thrive in life:
1. Food. The fuel students eat is directly correlated to their sustained focus and energy levels. Students will have more fuel to perform when sugar and processed foods are replaced with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and quality proteins.
2. Exercise and movement. Children were not designed to sit for six hours a day. Lessons that contain active movement will not only help students be but can also counteract some of the of extended sitting.
3. Sleep. Children need at least of sleep a night. Though my high school students rarely seem to regularly achieve it, we discuss ways to organize their days so that they can maximize on this crucial restoring developmental time.
4. Stress. Though stress is a part of life, students can learn to process and navigate it in healthy ways. They can learn tools to examine their and develop proactive habits towards reducing reactionary or holding patterns that perpetuate the harmful effects of stress.
5. Safe body decisions. When appropriate, discussing decision-making around and can save a student鈥檚 life. Various organizations have highly effective programs to speak with students professionally about these topics.
What we choose to do within schools can determine a child鈥檚 foundation for lifelong well-being. Though it takes intentional effort and quality professional development, it鈥檚 an investment in students鈥� academics and their personal capacity to thrive in the classroom and in life. I can鈥檛 think of a more worthwhile investment to make.
