>

As a teenager 5 months away from graduating highschool, this cannot be stressed enough.
Im under immense amount of pressure and although I had some dark thoughts in the past, yet I've remained thanks to my home life being wonderful (My parents are very supportive). But I've had to sit down and watch my near close friends suffering suicidal thoughts and hurting themselves in recent times. My friend's girlfriend who I've known for years tried to kill herself a few months back, one of my closest friends just got diagnosed with depression and is on heavy antidepressants, and a boy in my friend group came into school with cuts all down his arms. These are the examples in my friend group. Far worse exist across the rest of my year...
I see a lot of comments here saying that teenagers are always depressed. I feel this is due to society's standards being RIDICULOUS. Passing school and maintaining a decent social life is far harder today than it was in the past. I also agree parents should do more. Majority of my friend's problems stem from their parent's resentment towards either their kid or themselves. 
Despite recognising these problems a lot of kids are facing, my school does nothing. I feel like my friends and peers around me are being left to harm themselves and no adults in our life seem to care. I'm not saying that every single teacher should be taught therapy. I understand they go through enough shit already. But perhaps a good first step for the schools would be to simply...
...give a shit...
Parents need to do their part, too. People thinking that schools alone are responsible for these things are just wrong. People blame teachers for their kids' problems when they're sending a little demon to school. >

I didn't think this was an unpopular opinion, until I saw people disagreeing in the comments.
Society is so dynamic nowadays, it's changing faster and faster, and the current western school system is woefully inadequate.
During the industrial revolution, schools were standardised, and their purpose was to prepare young boys for jobs in factories and prepare young girls for homemaking. Nowadays it seems like their singular function is to prepare students to move on to college or university and that's it.
Unfortunately with higher education becoming so saturated, university degrees are becoming less and less valuable. Especially if you get something like communication, or gender studies.
I think the purpose of school should be to prepare children for life. Many people will say "that's the parents job", and it is  as well. But sadly, many children aren't lucky enough to have competent or caring parents. So I think teaching kids about mental health, and good mental hygiene practices can only be beneficial.
Especially in the environment of today. Teenagers are especially susceptible to negative self perception and depression, and this is magnified by social media and atomisation. The world we live in now has become a lot more detrimental to our mental health than it was 50 years ago. I struggle as an adult sometimes - it's even harder for teenagers that haven't built their whole identity yet.
By preparing children for the real world, by teaching them about mental health, teaching them how to handle money, apply for jobs,, take care of a house, raise kids if they want them, they would be far more equipped to deal with life. And in the long term, they'd likely put less strain on the healthcare system, have less debt and be better parents. Win, win, win! >

i definitely agree with this >

Thanks. Honestly I was surprised to read comments disagreeing with you.
The best counter-argument I could see was related to overworked teachers - which is an absolutely fair point.
In my opinion the entire education system needs to be overhauled and revamped. Part of that would be creating new jobs related to mental, physical and social health and then training up new staff specifically for that role. >

i was surprised as well and was expecting to take my post down.. guess not lol. 
that is a fair point, i don’t think it’s up to the teachers anyways. the school board were the ones that made all the rules. the counselors at my school (in my experience) did not help me much. they were more worried about my grades and what colleges i was going to, instead of my mental health. an actual therapist was too expensive and my parents couldn’t afford it for long >

In any struggling organisation, management is usually the culprit. As you say, the teachers aren't in a position to fix the problem; that's up to the board.
I didn't have much experience with counsellors during school, (I got into that in adulthood). Again though, the problem you had with the counsellor is rooted in how schools are evaluated for funding. Grades and the number of students going on to higher education are two of the main factors that decide how much funding a school will get. Because of that, the system tends to prioritise those 2 statistics over everything else.
Oh I totally understand what you mean with therapy. I left school at 17 and went straight into IT. So I was fortunate enough to be earning a reasonable wage with no debts, so I was able to make use of a private therapist when I needed it. However it would have still benefitted me a lot if my school had taught me how to look after my mental health, or offered free counselling. >

Mental health is and will always be a low priority item in society. It will remain that way until all other issues are resolved. >

Absolutely! Schools need to step up on including mental health and disabled rights in their teachings. 
Kids are not taught sufficiently and then when they are released into the world they're expected to magically know how to deal with it all. >

spot on! >

We have a long way to go away far as doing better with mental health problems.  A part of that is also helping teens realize that normal teen problems and emotions aren't an automatic sign of poor mental health. >

No. No, they don't. They need to prioritize education. >

If your mental health isn’t good, it doesn’t matter what you learn. >

exactly >

Teachers are not therapists. Councilors are not therapists. >

Actually, school counselors' education and certification is all psychology based. >

Going through puberty in your teenage years is hard on everyone. Every single kid is feeling some type of awkwardness in their body, anxiety, bouts of depression, etc.
Most of these feelings are not clinical mental health issues. Mental health is such an overused term it's borderline useless at this point. In so many cases, people are just describing the sensation of being alive with a human mind.
You probably leveled out in college because your hormones calmed down and you grew into your body. But you're not going to think that, because You're remembering from the mind of a hormonal teenager.
If kids are being raised in stable households, with decent diets, and ample time outdoors to get exercise and play sports, and if their family has good moral foundations, then we can examine if mental health is really an issue. >

Yeah but it's tough when every teenager thinks they're depressed. >

It's not the school's job to care about mental health just to teach you stuff and move on >

Social development is one of a school's duties. Absentee parents suck, but that doesn't mean absentee schools are okay. >

There's no obligation for schools to do that they don't teach the teachers to do that the teachers aren't payed to do that. Just to teach subjects then go home >

Maybe where you live. Where I lived, it was part of the requirements. >

Those poor teachers all that extra work without the pay for it. exploitation is getting out of hand >

Since I actually know teachers, I can tell you that they do want better pay. But mostly, they want better administrators. No more of those bs policies that create tons of extra paperwork, no more backing up the parents instead of the teacher, and no more restraints on where you can keep your lesson plans. >

Teenagers are highly unstable, half of them don't know what they want in life or where they are going. Lot don't care and go with the flow. >

what does prioritising mental health look like tho? my uni 'understands' one might have mental health issues and it has a wellbeing department to deal with minor depression and anxiety, but it does not have the resources to support someone with moderate to severe problems nor should that be expected; it's not part of the healthcare system. >

I think you're giving schools to much responsibility.  Teachers in some cases are expected to babysit, teach proper conduct and other things other than their job which is teaching.  A school can let parents of any issues, but it's not their responsibility to see that the child gets mental health care. >

My school has a wellness center where people can go in there to just chill, study, or get a form of counseling. It’s a very quiet and peaceful room >

Teachers can’t just give special treatment to a select few students just because someone is “in a dark place”. That’s not reality and unfair to other students. It doesn’t help prepare for the real world where deadlines are deadlines. More so in college where you’re given weeks to do a project and there’s really no excuse to not get a project done. Kids have lots of responsibilities and should be able to balance it all and trudge through any hardships. Kids have part time jobs, sports, clubs, ap classes, etc. Most kids can handle that. That’s just part of life and school is the best to learn how to get through it all. 
I do agree that schools should do more to help kids be successful. Whether that’s mental health  help, more guidance or more teacher intervention. >

It really isn't anybody else's responsibility. It's a hard but extremely valuable lesson that has to be learned, the world doesn't care how you feel it will continue on. Your health is not anybody else's responsibility and so long as YOU don't take responsibility you will always suffer with it. So many times I hear people blame their mental or physical health for why they can't go to work, school, do this or that and they never ever get over it they suffer with all these problems that they don't fix. Trust me this comes from someone who has dealt with some severe depression, it is not until YOU decide you want to change, YOU reach out, YOU put in the effort to get better. It's hard, very very hard, but if you don't learn you will live in depression forever and you cannot blame anyone but yourself. Not to mention the confidence you gain knowing you CAN climb out of the deepest depression and make it through your darkest moments is so beneficial. >

The issues is that schools don't care if we have poor mental health. 
They just want to pump out as many work force employees as they can. The more a person fits into a box the better and easier it is for them. 
My best friend has had issues with her kids and schools because they have ADHD and need different tactics to learn and a teacher told her that the schools aren't even teaching comprehension anymore, as long as they can word vomit what they've been told, they are considered good to go.
I'm currently living in southeast Oregon and they are no longer making it a requirement to be able to do basic reading, writing, and math in order to receive a high school diploma. 
They do not care about people. 
They care about making cogs for their machine. >

Parents need to do their part, too. People thinking that schools alone are responsible for these things are just wrong. People blame teachers for their kids' problems when they're sending a little demon to school. >

I didn't think this was an unpopular opinion, until I saw people disagreeing in the comments.
Society is so dynamic nowadays, it's changing faster and faster, and the current western school system is woefully inadequate.
During the industrial revolution, schools were standardised, and their purpose was to prepare young boys for jobs in factories and prepare young girls for homemaking. Nowadays it seems like their singular function is to prepare students to move on to college or university and that's it.
Unfortunately with higher education becoming so saturated, university degrees are becoming less and less valuable. Especially if you get something like communication, or gender studies.
I think the purpose of school should be to prepare children for life. Many people will say "that's the parents job", and it is  as well. But sadly, many children aren't lucky enough to have competent or caring parents. So I think teaching kids about mental health, and good mental hygiene practices can only be beneficial.
Especially in the environment of today. Teenagers are especially susceptible to negative self perception and depression, and this is magnified by social media and atomisation. The world we live in now has become a lot more detrimental to our mental health than it was 50 years ago. I struggle as an adult sometimes - it's even harder for teenagers that haven't built their whole identity yet.
By preparing children for the real world, by teaching them about mental health, teaching them how to handle money, apply for jobs,, take care of a house, raise kids if they want them, they would be far more equipped to deal with life. And in the long term, they'd likely put less strain on the healthcare system, have less debt and be better parents. Win, win, win! >

i definitely agree with this >

Thanks. Honestly I was surprised to read comments disagreeing with you.
The best counter-argument I could see was related to overworked teachers - which is an absolutely fair point.
In my opinion the entire education system needs to be overhauled and revamped. Part of that would be creating new jobs related to mental, physical and social health and then training up new staff specifically for that role. >

i was surprised as well and was expecting to take my post down.. guess not lol. 
that is a fair point, i don’t think it’s up to the teachers anyways. the school board were the ones that made all the rules. the counselors at my school (in my experience) did not help me much. they were more worried about my grades and what colleges i was going to, instead of my mental health. an actual therapist was too expensive and my parents couldn’t afford it for long >

In any struggling organisation, management is usually the culprit. As you say, the teachers aren't in a position to fix the problem; that's up to the board.
I didn't have much experience with counsellors during school, (I got into that in adulthood). Again though, the problem you had with the counsellor is rooted in how schools are evaluated for funding. Grades and the number of students going on to higher education are two of the main factors that decide how much funding a school will get. Because of that, the system tends to prioritise those 2 statistics over everything else.
Oh I totally understand what you mean with therapy. I left school at 17 and went straight into IT. So I was fortunate enough to be earning a reasonable wage with no debts, so I was able to make use of a private therapist when I needed it. However it would have still benefitted me a lot if my school had taught me how to look after my mental health, or offered free counselling. >

Mental health is and will always be a low priority item in society. It will remain that way until all other issues are resolved. >

Absolutely! Schools need to step up on including mental health and disabled rights in their teachings. 
Kids are not taught sufficiently and then when they are released into the world they're expected to magically know how to deal with it all. >

spot on! >

No. No, they don't. They need to prioritize education. >

If your mental health isn’t good, it doesn’t matter what you learn. >

exactly >

We have a long way to go away far as doing better with mental health problems.  A part of that is also helping teens realize that normal teen problems and emotions aren't an automatic sign of poor mental health. >

The issues is that schools don't care if we have poor mental health. 
They just want to pump out as many work force employees as they can. The more a person fits into a box the better and easier it is for them. 
My best friend has had issues with her kids and schools because they have ADHD and need different tactics to learn and a teacher told her that the schools aren't even teaching comprehension anymore, as long as they can word vomit what they've been told, they are considered good to go.
I'm currently living in southeast Oregon and they are no longer making it a requirement to be able to do basic reading, writing, and math in order to receive a high school diploma. 
They do not care about people. 
They care about making cogs for their machine.