S.E.T.ting a stance on importance of mental health awareness
Hi everyone!
This post is going to be on the same topic as last time, mental health. The reason I keep posting about this is because I would like to clarify certain aspects of the topics more and more each time, compared to the other subjects in the curriculum this one is new to the Indian school system (and is going to be harder to accommodate).
Today I’ll update you on how the worksheet and curriculum for the mental health class are going. To start off I will be recommending it as 2 day class: the first day would be to teach and the second would be to answer questions (which would be anonymously sent in).
As for the actual lecture/discussion on the first day it will start with the topics of peer pressure. At this age many kids tend to enter into “cliques” and act like their friends to “be cool” and by understanding the effects of peer pressure we show children the harmful side effects and give them a chance to make decisions within themselves. My advisor, Allison Stewart, shared with me a way to teach this: healthy belief model and social cognitive theory. Basically both of them revolve around the concept of putting the causes and effects/impacts out there and from there on you are free to make your own choice. This specific topics would be referred back to during the lecture about contraceptives through the idea of being forced into not wanting to use them and by putting the effects of not using contraceptives out there (such as teen pregnancy or STDs) we have done the jobs of the curriculum which is to inform the kids about the impacts before stepping foot into the real world.
Additionally the other sub-topics in this section of mental health would be stress, anxiety, depression, gender identity (one which is controversial to say the least but still just as important) and body dysmorphia. In this section I will also attach links to help in case either the teacher/school is uncomfortable with providing all the information or the student has questions the teacher is unable to answer. Proving these links would also aid in media literacy which is a huge part of today’s society.
Khalil Gibran once said that “knowledge and understanding are life’s faithful companions who will never prove untrue to you. For knowledge is your crown, and understanding you staff; and when they are with you, you can possess no greater treasure.” This quote might answer some questions I think I’ll get about teaching certain concepts, while the curriculum encourages, not requires, the concepts to be taught, the importance of this knowledge can not be understated.
Thank you for reading!
- Koushita
Comments:
All viewpoints are welcome but profane, threatening, disrespectful, or harassing comments will not be tolerated and are subject to moderation up to, and including, full deletion.