Emotional Intelligence for Coming Generations
And how to incorporate mental health awareness in high schools.
As an avid social media user, I see countless posts from high school students talking about their low mental health, and how they believe part of it stems from the stress they put on themselves because of school. Teenagers use TikTok videos, Twitter threads, and Instagram posts to display their stance on mental health awareness and resources. Some have even resorted to using creative methods like writing songs and painting moving artworks to depict the struggles they face. While I was on a TikTok binge, I stumbled across a video promoting a petition for mental health days in American high schools; thousands of people signed it. How could school-supplied mental health and emotional intelligence resources change students’ school experience?
Nobody wants to be associated with mental health problems. Whether it is stress or something worse, they can be hard to deal with. Most high school students are nervous to open up to someone about their own issues. The stigma surrounding mental health is one of the reasons teens feel intimidated by it and refuse to ask for help. Combating the stigma is the best way to get people to speak out about it, and the best way to do that is to create an environment in schools where students can talk openly about mental health.
When an unpleasant event happens to you, you feel sad. When this sadness becomes prolonged, and you feel like there is no reason to feel it, but you do, it becomes depression, which can lead you into a very dark state of mind. It is easy to fall into this cycle if you are not aware of how it starts and grows. Being able to recognize and handle your emotions is part of emotional intelligence, and having a low emotional intelligence quotient makes it easier for you to develop anxiety or depression. Emotional intelligence courses in high schools can help to stop this process before it even starts, preventing the buildup of anxiety in students.
A great portion of someone’s life can be affected by their mental health in their high school years, which is why students must be well educated on it. Suicide rates, dropouts, and juvenile justice all trace back to mental health in students. The American College Health Association found that anxiety and depression increased from 50% in 2011 to 62% in 2016 of people under the age of twenty-two.
Teenage Maximillian Park’s example illustrates the difference that can be caused by emotional intelligence and mental health resources. We have two cases with the same girl, with relatively low emotional intelligence, who got a “D” on her math test. The first case is the one we live in, without mental health resources at schools. In this case, the girl gets upset and decides that she does not like math. When the next test arrives, she does not bother to prepare for it, because she believes she has already failed. She falls into a spiral of not preparing for tests and a loss of sleep, slowly developing anxiety. Years pass, and she barely graduates, soon settling for a job she does not like. Since high school, she has had this engraved mindset that she cannot do better.
The second case is a world with emotional intelligence education. Instead of becoming too dismayed, she remembers what she has learned in her emotional intelligence education, and is quick to calm herself down. Self-made coping systems can be made by anyone for anybody. The girl becomes determined to do better and ends up doing just that; she realizes that she controls her life. As one becomes more educated in emotional intelligence, the rational and emotional parts of their brain start to increasingly collaborate. Thus, it is easier for them to comprehend emotions.
Evidently, mental health is an important part of a person’s high school years. The main goal of emotional intelligence courses in schools would be to prevent mental health problems before they start, while also maintaining good mental health in students. Students with high mental health are more successful both academically and socially.
In conclusion, schools should provide students with mental health education classes, so that they can do better not just in school, but also outside of school and throughout their lives afterward. I hope you further understand the importance of mental health education in American high schools.
