Meital Pavolotzky, Week 8: Mental Health Days

    For the last couple of days there has been no school in honor of parent-teacher conferences. I, like many others, have definitely enjoyed taking a break off from school. As we all know, school life can be stressful. Dealing with multiple classes, completing all your assignments, making sure that your grades are high, and so much more. This goes without saying all the stresses that we have to simultaneously handle in our home lives. Many students participate in sports and extracurricular activities, have jobs, or have a lot going on with their families. Therefore, having a few days here and there to give us a break and let us breathe for a bit is really nice.

    The covid-19 pandemic had a huge impact on the mental health of kids and teenagers. This is why already twelve states have allowed mental health days. These are days that let students miss school without having any absences. Many people say that this is a great opportunity for students to take a break and refresh so that they can work to their full potential. However, there are also many downsides to mental health days.

    Allowing kids to take a day off from school is not the best way to address the mental health crisis. Most students are likely to use these days so that they can miss important tests or presentations that they are not prepared for. While it would give them some extra time to study, it would also be teaching kids to run away from their problems and to deal with them another day. Instead, they should be taught to confront their hardships and to learn from them. As well, many people question whether mental health days actually help students cope with their stresses. Every person had a different situation but there may be some students who would be alone for the whole day. If they were truly in a bad mental state then this could be harmful to them.

    In conclusion, letting kids take days off from school is a way that many states have addressed the mental health crisis. Nonetheless, skipping school is not a great way to better ourselves mentally and it could actually be harmful. So, many people believe that instead of giving breaks from school, students should instead get more access to mental health resources.

    What do you think is a better option than mental health days?

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/more-schools-are-offering-student-mental-health-days-heres-what-you-need-to-know/2023/01

https://childmind.org/article/should-kids-take-mental-health-days/



Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 8, 2023 at 4:10 PM

    I completely agree. I think mental health issues should be confronted and taken care of instead of neglected. Mental health days are just days off school that won't actually benefit the student regardless of their mental state. I think that providing the school with a guidance counselor and access to mental health resources will be much more effective and helpful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 12, 2023 at 8:37 PM

    I honestly don't think that giving someone access to mental health resources is an effective way to reduce stress if that stress is brought from feeling overworked. The likely hood that an overworked person takes the time to use the resources are slim. Also, telling someone to take a second to breath isn't going to do anything if they don't have the time to. I think that a solution to this problem could possibly be having school wide mental health days where they promote the resources in an assembly and then give the next day to the students to explore their options if they so choose.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 14, 2023 at 8:27 AM

    While this is definitely a very well written and researched blog, I strongly disagree with it. Often, the stress the school system and certain classes put on their students can be crushing, especially for those with mental disorders such as anxiety, or those on the spectrum. This stress, on top of the stress and anxiety of everyday life, can be crushing. So, taking a day off to relax is a more than valid solution in my opinion. I can see where you’re coming from, but I personally believe that mental health days are a fine solution to that problem.

    ReplyDelete
  4. EvaNovember 15, 2023 at 5:51 PM

    Wow, this is very well researched! I agree with you on the part about kids abusing these mental health days as an excuse to run away from their problems or procrastinate, but I also think that some people genuinely could benefit from mental health days. Therefore, I think that there should be mental health days, albeit a limited amount before they become actual absences. Taking some days off for yourself in particularly stressing times, regardless if the stress is coming from or outside of school, is an effective way to stay at the top of your game.

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