Dr. Deborah Childs PhD. spends time with Jeff as they reflect on the state of mental health in education today. How is the system itself causing its own mental health crises? With "no child left behind" now 20+ years in the works, we have witnessed unprecedented dreadful gun violence, surges in suicide, high drop out rates and the uses of illicit drugs by teenagers. Can the system learn to be "self assessing" in new ways? Can we keep going in the same direction and expect different results? Is diagnosis of young students who are struggling to keep up with demands in a system that has lost track of them fair? A recent article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch suggested that teachers concerns for deemphasizing testing and hiring more support staff were disregarded by officials this year (Oct. 18, 2022 edition). Instead the top priority that was proposed was that teachers starting salary go from a whopping $25,000/year (for a teacher) to $38,000/year. This is very concerning, at least to me and to this podcast. Dr. Childs says that it is going to take a "village" to address our system and make some healing changes. I give a shout out to all of those teachers who are going through a struggle to be authentic and to stand up for a new appreciation for the arts and humanity in education - it matters to the mental health of our children and to all of us.
