Imagine walking down the street on
a nice summer day. The sun is out, birds are chirping, the breeze is flowing
through your hair. But all of a sudden you notice a man following you, and you
feel panicked. You feel lost and you start to question your safety. You look
around and notice that there is nobody there but you and that man. Everything
is spinning around you and all you can hear is the intense pounding of your
heart in your ears. You start to sweat. Then you start to notice that it’s
getting more and more difficult to breathe. Each breath is getting shorter and
it almost feels like something is choking you. You have this powerful sense
that everything is wrong, that you are not safe at all. You try to run away but
the man is catching up to you. You can’t escape him. There is a reason behind
your panic, but could you imagine having all of that fear because you have to
get a shot at the doctors; or because you have to speak in front of the class;
or maybe for what seems like no reason at all. This is something that someone
with anxiety goes through every single day. Even if they don’t have what is
called a panic or anxiety attack, the fear of having one at any moment is just
as frightening.
One
in eight kids suffer from an anxiety disorder. This statistic is much
higher than most people would think. In most schools today kids do not receive
the right treatment to be able to perform decently in school. Most schools
would look at a kid with anxiety and tell them to grow up or get over it.
Statistics show that only one third of people suffering from anxiety are
receiving treatment for it.
Coming from someone who suffers
from anxiety and depression, I know from personal experience how a good handful
of teachers treat high school and middle school aged kids who have anxiety.
Most of them don’t treat students that have anxiety like they have a mental
illness at all. This is partly because of the student not directly explaining
their situation and what they are going through. It’s embarrassing to admit
that you have such a fear of talking in front of people that you can’t even
show up to class and try. It can be hard for teachers to understand students
with anxiety because most people with anxiety try to hide it from their peers
as much as possible. Sometimes students will skip a class when a project is
due, not because it wasn’t completed, but because they were too anxious to go. Let
me tell you, having a panic attack in front of a bunch of your 15-year-old
peers is the most embarrassing situation. Teenagers can be ruthless. For a kid
with anxiety, especially social anxiety, being made fun of for something that
is completely out of your control is extremely painful.
Part of the problem with anxiety is
that you won’t understand it unless you have it. You won’t understand what
everyday life is like for someone with it unless you sadly live the same life.
But with more education on anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses and
disorders, I think that schools have the potential to help kids who have
anxiety. If schools took more time in health class to explain various mental
illnesses that are more common then I think that more students would be able to
understand and have more sympathy for those who are suffering from mental illnesses,
rather than possibly making fun of something that a person cannot control.
Schools should also have a program to help
give teachers ways to aid students who are suffering from mental illnesses such
as anxiety. With something like that added, I think that both students and teachers would benefit and be able to make the classroom environment fitting for everyone.
Schools do have such a program. In Massachusetts, it's called an "Individualized Education Program", or IEP for short. The family sits down with the school officials, and with guidance from mental health professionals, they work out accommodations that will allow the student to benefit from the educational process.
ReplyDeleteIf the student has test anxiety, they can be given extra time to complete their work. And/or they can take the test in isolation from other kids. If they are unable to give oral presentations in front of their peers, they would be allowed to give them to just the teacher.
You are correct in saying that there is an IEP program put in place for kids. But the problem with this is that they must be diagnosed at a very young age. Once you are at an older age the whole IEP program doesn't really come into play unless it is a very extreme case. Sadly, for students who are good students all or most of the time and are okay in class most of the time, they do not receive the help they need. It kind of is treated as an all-or-nothing situation. Kids could have little, or no, anxiety when a younger kid but they have it become a bigger problem when they're older. Some schools really do have it together and do a great job with this program. But as for a large group of other schools, they need more help with the IEP program and other programs that they need.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous -- you're gateposting IEP support with the vague phrases "very young age" and "older age" instead of giving actual numbers. My anecdotal rebuttal is that one of my kids got an IEP at age 14. And the accommodations were not "all-or-nothing". Some years, the child took advantage of the pullouts; other years they did not feel them as necessary.
ReplyDeleteNow granted -- as a white upper-class well-educated parent I knew about the program, was able to fill out the paperwork, and could take time off to attend regular meetings with the school staff. So it's hard for me to say how inclusive other parents might feel the process.
As a behavior tech who works with children who suffer from anxiety and many other disorders I can tell you first hand that yes, IEPs do exist, but not often do the parents or the teachers care about the disorders and how they are treated in the classrooms. Mostly techs such as myself and special education directors are the only people who care about behavior modification and meeting the IEP regulations, but in most schools techs and special education is lacking due to funding, and in behavioral programs, are seen as unnecessary and a waste of money. These children need more support and more understanding. We need more teachers that understand and can spot anxiety and other mental disorders that may hinder learning (PTSD is a huge one). It's great that you are a white upper-class well-educated parent and you were able to be there for your child, but most kids don't have that support, and need it in the school from the teachers and the staff. Teachers need more training in how to handle these disorders, and we need more behavior techs to help children. Mental health is extremely important and we need to educate children. Health class, yes. We need more mental health awareness for children, maybe an entire week about it. But teachers need more training, more compassion, more understanding. This is a HUGE issue and this can't be taken lightly just because you had a great experience. Most of these students don't have parents who have the time, energy, or maybe don't care about whether the IEP is met. Some of these parents aren't even active in the parents lives, they might be in rehab or jail. These kids need techs and teachers to stand in and fight for them but when the teachers aren't educated on how to do that, we flop as an education system. These kids need that support in school. We need more funding for these programs.
DeleteI agree that schools should dedicate more time in health classes to help students to understand mental health. I personally can't recall ever being taught what anxiety was at any point from middle school to high school. As for students being supported by teachers, Carl, you mentioned IEP's and I agree they are good for individual students if they are able to get one. I know that it isn't as simple as filling out paperwork, it's a pretty long process. I have worked closely with the teacher of a Kindergarten classroom and she explained what a student would have to go through in order to get an IEP. The student would need to observed multiple times (which seems necessary), certain instances would need to have occurred more than a handful of times, and the parents would need to meet with the guidance counselor, teachers, etc. on many different occasions. That wasn't even to get an actual IEP, but the first steps that needed to be made to potentially get an IEP. My parents had to experience a similar process when trying to get my older brother an IEP when he was first beginning school. The school was against it, believing he didn't need it and if it weren't for a local counsel man, my brother probably never would've gotten the IEP he needed.
ReplyDeleteThat was the process I was introduced to for younger children. When it comes to older students I experienced something different with my best friend. Once she started high school her anxiety and depression hit her so hard that she physically and mentally couldn't go to school and couldn't do her school work. She received an IEP, though I'm not sure what the process was, but she still wasn't being supported by her teachers. Her IEP might as well have not existed, because they didn't follow it. It was a long road for her to recover and feel OK to go to school again, but the IEP was not the answer.
I agree with the above post that students who have anxiety need support from teachers and other faculty members in their school environment. I also agree that unless someone also has anxiety or depression it is incredibly difficult to understand why they feel the way they do.
I didn't have custody when my kid was young, so I don't know how the IEP process works for elementary school. When that changed in the middle school years, I was fortunate enough to be able to take them to a private practice psychologist who had spent a decade working as a school therapist. So, he knew exactly what paperwork was necessary.
DeleteWith respect to not being supported by teachers... that is where a parent has to step up and fight for their child. School administrators, teachers, staff are overworked and underpaid and thus tend to follow the path of least resistance. Which often means ignoring rules and IEPs unless a parent schedules a meeting and says, "Excuse me? Why is that teacher not allowing the accommodation which is explicitly allowed?"