School – Home away from home

Mental health is a complex mix of physical, behavioural, psychological and emotional states of a person. In order to understand phenomena of sound mental health, in general parlance, one can relate to balanced emotional state, meaningful interactions, understanding of self and others, free from physical distresses and the list goes on… Due to the bidirectional nature of the impact of physical and mental health towards each other, studying mental health in isolation will not be judicious.

"Physical health affects mental health and vice versa"

On the home front:

When we talk about sound mental health, parallel with school culture, the home environment is an important dimension worth consideration. Parenting styles, sociodemographic status, family pattern-joint or nuclear, rural-urban scenario, the genetic make-up of individuals and still many more aspects play part in shaping a person. Interactions between home and school culture have a cumulative effect. It becomes evident that the role of home and school environment is intertwined so cannot pinpoint which has more impact on the personality.

Advertisement

The prominence of mental health: Impression of childhood:

One cannot overlook the bearing of childhood memories on the personality of an individual. Life experiences, the environment around us creates an impression on the mental framework of a person, which eventually gets reflected in adulthood as a personality trait. In adulthood, those traits/attitudes/attributes developed over the period of time seep into personal and professional life, as a marital outcome, success in career, educational achievements, managing relationships to name a few. There is enough research evidence where significant adult well-being could be predicted through childhood experiences. individual home school

School – Home away from home:

School is an entity where the child experiences his/her initial exposure to the outside world. As children spend a maximum of their wake/day time in the school environment, it has a lot to offer to the holistic development of children. School, prime contributor in partaking skills that function and support children to be adaptive and engender positive outlook towards life further ensuring wellbeing. School is an excellent platform to practice, try, test and hone their skills even postulates the opportunity to learn and grow, gain knowledge. It will help children in enabling dealing effectively with ever-changing/increasing demands and challenges later in life.

The environment at school – At a personal level of the child: 

Advertisement

• Helps the assessment of one’s own potential.
• Awareness of strengths and weaknesses (areas of improvement).
• Relating to one’s own feelings as well as feelings of others.
• Learning about empathy.
• Understanding others in the right perspective.
• Building and maintaining healthy relationships. 
• Encourage nurturing behaviour towards people in need of care and assistance, or tolerance.
• Cognitive abilities such as expression of thoughts.

Considering the bi-directional nature of physical and mental facet, school environment facilitates:

Physical – children to constructively divert/ channelise their energies through sports activities.
Behavioural – interaction among children with the same age group helps in enhancing pro-social behaviour. Learning to adapt to be part of the group.
Social – learn how to adjust to situations. Forming relationships/ friendships. Effective communication skills.
Mental – capability comprising of reasoning, problem-solving, creative thinking, planning, abstract thinking, comprehending complex ideas. Till now we were discussing school as a contributor to supporting children to learn different abilities. Looking at the other side of the coin, school culture can make or break a child. When a child experiences bullying, abuse in school setting it leaves lasting scar on his/her mind. Sometimes it so happens that during schooling child’s special needs are detected For e.g. specific learning difficulties. When sensed at early stages, prevent the child from further damage from experiencing negative emotions. In a school setting with ample opportunities for the child to learn life skills under one roof, can have a positive impact across life-span. Thus, we can hope better citizens- better society working towards nation-building. Remember schools! Be careful, great powers come with great responsibility.

Then the question arises of how schools should work about enhancing sound mental health in children and not only focus on academic excellence.

Strategies – All of us are aware of the fact that at each life stage child experiences different risks – mental physical behavioural and psychological levels. Due to changing lifestyle, family patterns, support systems and many other valid grounds nurturing a child is a real challenge. School as a prime contributor concocting strategy for developing sound mental health is no easy task. All of us as adults experience information explosion, even children are not spared. Information is at your fingertips. There is a thin line of use and abuse of technology. For children due to their limited life experience guiding and mentoring is advisable.

At school level:

• Identification of the school-specific issue.
• Inclusion of daily yoga practices (age-appropriate) at early stages by professionals.
• Frequency of parent and teachers’ interface.
• Trained professional psychologist and counsellor.
• Devising age-appropriate projects- encourage-innovative ideas, creativity.
• One hour of activity & role-plays involving children.
• Instilling self-discipline.
• Group discussions on current topics (for senior school children).
• Gender sensitivity/ suicide prevention.
• Life-skills (WHO) exercises/ value education.
• Culture – dance-drama theatre.

Each of the above is to be primary, secondary and high school level specific. If we explore the daily time table of the child. We find there is hardly little time left for the child for himself/ herself. Minimum homework will enable a child to get more time for himself/herself. Weight of the school bag, a matter of concern for every child. School can use technology in a classroom setting. Instead of carrying the whole set of books and notebooks. Of course, This concept needs further research ….

Teacher’s role is pivotal and cannot be ignored. The teacher should be able to identify which role she should take after considering the need of the student at that point in time and situation.

Advertisement

• T – Trainer
• E – Educator
• A – Administrator
• C – Confidante
• H – Holistic perspective
• E – Enthusiast
• R – Resourceful

Teachers also experience the pressure of completing portions, conducting-correcting exams/exam papers, administrative work other than imparting knowledge. Management and teachers should have a mutual understanding about role clarity. Teachers also should undergo life skills training in order to enhance the effectiveness of their profession. Regularly talks/ discussions/ debates could be arranged by doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists’ educationists, open forums on current affairs for parents’ teachers and children. When we talk about the mental health of the child everybody – including the child himself, parents, school, society have a small part to play in a big way.

"Views expressed in this article are personal"

About The Author:

Dr. Poorva Ranade, Ph.D. (Psychology), is a practicing psychologist and counsellor from Bangalore

Advertisement