I’m a teacher who can’t be arsed... AIBU?

[EffYouSeeKaye]

... with all the Emotional Well-Being shenanigans these days. Honestly, it’s overkill. Can I just TEACH please? With the usual (already massively time consuming) actual pastoral care included but not this whole new level of FAFF.

They don’t want it. They don’t need it. They don’t want to think about it all. the. time.

They need the normality of lessons. Learning. Keeping their brains positively occupied with acquiring useful skills and knowledge.

They don’t need an overload of (often crap and patronising) storybooks and colouring activities.

Pleeeeease???!? Enough now.

AIBU?

I think mental health is vital to child development but agree that not everyone responds well to ‘mindfulness’, yoga, etc (I don’t!). I don’t think the issue is focusing on mental health, I would argue that’s very much part of our job, but perhaps some Heads are trying too hard to have a one-size-fits-all policy. Routine can be good for mental health. Academic success can be good for mental health. I think it’s up to the teachers who know their students to judge what works best for them. FWIW, DD who really does have MH issues gets brilliant support from her school. She has weekly counselling sessions and a weekly ‘games club’ with her friends. But not everyone needs that.

It feels to me as though there should be a careful distinction between a normal reaction to a pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns / change in home circumstances etc and a diagnosed Mental Health problem. One seems to be getting confused with the other and children - via the power of suggestion - are thinking that because they have missed their friends / grandparents / swimming lessons and felt sad about that, or because they have worried about catching a horrible virus, that they now have a MH problem.

This is the problem with (probably ofsted driven) initiatives in schools being delivered by people who didn’t train in this field in the first place.

Am I wrong? Is feeling sad or worried about these things the same as a MH problem? I’m sure it’s not but then again I’m not a medical professional - which is kind of my whole point!

As a teacher I agree - robust pastoral care for your form group or your year group is important (and always has been). It is also important to look for any changes in children that could warrant a Child Protection or Safeguarding alert. But beyond those usual things, normality is needed for sure. In our school it's all mindfulness, colouring, talking about how everything is going to work out okay. We need to stop focusing on COVID and its impact and deliver normal days and normal lessons.

I have Inset after school Weds on suicide prevention. Wish I could just have the colouring.

On the first day with all the kids back in, we spent half an hour settling in at the beginning of the day and then cracked on with lessons. I had different expectations for their stamina and resilience, and made sure they all knew that I just wanted them to try their best (like always!). Other than that, it was normal. I know of schools which did “two weeks of art and PSHE” and I just think how bored my class would have been and how unsettling it would have been for them to get back and find that now school was completely different too.

I can’t be arsed but it hasn’t really got anything to do with the topic...

It’s just all so boring. And I haven’t seen my mum or dad in so long but yippee I get to see little Johnny play two notes on a piano I’m so thrilled.

Also so grateful for all the wonderful help and support an exam board beginning with E has given. It’s so great that exam boards are being paid the same as every other year, I mean they must really need it to maintain such a high degree of vagueness. I have read that being vague and ambiguous when it comes to students grades is what’s best for their mental health aswell so that’s good.

It’s such a farce that we are back in school for kids’ mental health and well being. If we cared about their well being we’d have given them time to see their families before bringing them back to school. But apparently school is much more important than seeing grandma!!!!

Just realised it could be two exam boards I’m talking about. To be honest it’s all of them - so it doesn’t really matter. Also I don’t believe it’s their fault.

It would feel useful if we weren’t so obviously being used to hide the gaps in Camhs funding. As said above, this is skating on the surface while the poor kids who really need it are left with nothing.

I have a relative who works for CAMHS. They say they are drowning at the moment. They have a tsunami of referrals and virtually no funding. They said the other day "I feel like I have kids who need major surgery and all I can give them is a plaster". Funding for mental health is a disgrace.

Am I wrong? Is feeling sad or worried about these things the same as a MH problem? I’m sure it’s not but then again I’m not a medical professional - which is kind of my whole point!

No it’s not the same thing - we’re giving so many mixed messages about mental health just now it’s astounding. Having a very normal, human reaction to pandemic and lockdown isn’t a mental health problem. In some circumstances feeling anxious and depressed are wholly healthy responses eg following bereavement or in the face of significant health problems. The problem with some of the resilience agenda is that any response that isn’t “we’re doing ok, well get through it” is pathologised as indicating a mental health problem.

oh of course we must evidence it! It hasn’t happened if we don’t make a scrap book / photo montage / display about it, has it? All for the good of the kids, of course...

Ha! The constant filming & photographing & scrapbooking does seem like it must take away from the actual teaching 🤷‍♀️

ittakes2
Teachers are appropriately qualified to teach their subject(s) and provide pastoral care. They are not mental health professionals so should not be delivering mental health type services as it does a huge disservice to the young people who need appropriate support.

All the but why do they need to learn useless triangle stuff instead of mental health and budgeting misses the point that the role of preparing children for life lies with their parents, not teachers who have their students for approximately 25 hours of lessons a week, 39 weeks of the year.

If adults have mental health issues, it's not because their schools didn't ditch the curriculum in favour of having well-meaning unqualified (whichbis exactly what most teachers are regarding mental health) promoting navel-gazing, colouring in and unintentionally pathologising normal human emotions. To suggest that adult mental health issues would be lower if schools did mental health lessons 20-40 years ago is to woefully ignore the complex factors that feed into mental illness.

The reluctance from some for kids to ever experience shame is another thing that does my head in. Shame is a natural response. You should be ashamed if you're caught doing something wrong! No, I'm not going to be sympathetic if you come back in crying after getting in serious trouble with the principal. Think about how you ended up in that trouble in the first place.

The best way for me to deal with life-shit is to busy myself in normal. My dad died at a major transition point at school. My new school quietly switched some forms around so I had a good cluster of friends and didn't need to worry about that side of settling in, and the normality and settling in was good for me. Reinforcing how sad I should be would have been deeply unhelpful. My form tutor gave me a big consoling hug in 6th form when one of my subject teachers had been rather unpleasant and unprofessional; at that moment, it was what I needed.
I suppose my "mindfulness" was whiling away many an hour's lunch break in the school library, or doing clubs like choir. Budget cuts and teacher workloads have reduced those kinds of opportunities.

I was a teacher for a decade until the workload of a data based culture and DS's emerging additional needs became overwhelming. Staff meetings frequently involved muttered phrases like "weighing the pig doesn't put on the bacon". The assessment cycles took up about a third of curriculum time. Long gone were the days of a quick end of unit test to estanblish the range of knowledge gained.

It's the politicisation of education and the constant battle for schools to generate the right data to survive that is a major trigger of a lot of youth issues. Obviously not all, and timely specialist support needs to be there for the deeper underlying issues.

My now 8yo has shown depressed behaviour over much of the past year. The biggest cure for him has been signing him up with a football team. He's needed a bit of a nudge to rebuild friendships. Colouring in and mulling things over is not the solution for him. I haven't told him he's depressed, I have talked to him about his feelings, what he misses and future opportunities.
My 10yo with ASD just needs stability of routines, the familiar, opportunities for a safe space and understanding when he's overwhelmed. Colouring in hurts his dyspraxic hands.

It's not that mindfulness and yoga are inherently wrong, our lives need a little space to naturally fit them in. For children like DS, the reality is actually zoning out by playing Minecraft/ watching youtube about gaming/ battle strategies of WW2 at the enf of the day before another activity later in the evening. Recognising different forms that it takes is important.

Also important is recognising the difference in a temporary normal reaction to life events, and ongoing mental health difficulties that require specialist support, feeling anxious about something specific/ generalised intrusive anxiety for example.

I had a go at teaching 16 to 18 plus some adults.
I realised it was not for me. Enjoyed the actual class teaching. Every other aspect of the role was utterly insane and inefficient. Added to which the suggestion that you were personally responsible for making sure that they came to no harm in any aspect of their life. Hard enough but it was in a rough end of a city.
Possible to earn a modest salary far more easily elsewhere tbh.

It is probably boring and tedious from a teacher POV.
Personally I think it is informative and helpful especially for some DC around here with little support at home.
After reading, writing, maths I've no memory of lessons in school I'd have enjoyed this work as a DC and probably avoided some of the trouble I got in as a teenager.
The DC are tired from homeschooling, they need some mindfulness, we live in a world parents are stressed, both working, anxious from work maybe alcohol, drugs, overeaters the DC from yesteryear.
I understand teacher didn't go to college to teach MH resilience but it can only benefit their MH and choices.
Some DC have never heard this mindful jargon before.

I think the constant focus on mental health will lead to a self fulfilling prophesy in schools. I think the pandemic and lockdown has been awful for mental health but getting back to normal routine Is what his needed.

If adults have mental health issues, it's not because their schools didn't ditch the curriculum in favour of having well-meaning unqualified (whichbis exactly what most teachers are regarding mental health) promoting navel-gazing, colouring in and unintentionally pathologising normal human emotions.

Part of the problem is some teachers thinking they are qualified after a 2 day short course in mindfulness, growth mindset or whatever is flavour of the month. It takes a lot of training and experience to be able to assess and support complex mental health issues. Well-being stuff is fine and good if it’s matched by actual professional intervention but all to often it’s not. I don’t blame teachers for doing what they can in terms of well-being support but knowing your limitations is very important.

Mindfulness isn’t a panacea for mental health problems, it can be helpful but can also be problematic in some cases - teachers on the whole aren’t qualified to know when it’s ok and when it really isn’t, or that different forms of mindfulness might suit some kids better.

I also worry it starts blaming kids for having perfectly normal reactions to situations. Feelings like sadness, shame, anger and stress aren’t inherently bad, resilience goes so far but I hear people say things like “I’m doing mindfulness, going for a walk and digging in my garden, but I still feel stressed” as if there was something wrong with feeling stressed in stressful circumstances.

If adults have mental health issues, it's not because their schools didn't ditch the curriculum in favour of having well-meaning unqualified (whichbis exactly what most teachers are regarding mental health) promoting navel-gazing, colouring in and unintentionally pathologising normal human emotions.
I understand that but you'd be surprised how early positive thinking patterns can help.
Many adults have had their MH go down from their experiences on old style teaching.

Jellycatspyjamas
As a teacher I totally agree with you .
There was a point where talk about resilience was about encouraging children to accept we all make mistakes, that there are ups and downs in life, that we all need balance in life, that hobbies are important, that if they have a low test score then it's not the end of the world, we can learn from feedback, sometimes we will be selected for the football team or the leading role in a play and others we won't, that learning is a process and so on. I enjoyed that approach.
Now there seems to be a lot of confusion between normal emotions that are part of life, and clinical mental health issues. There's a switch that's happened between "I feel nervous about the test" and "I HAVE anxiety about it" and I'm not sure it's helpful or healthy for the students.

Equally, we used to encourage students to do things they enjoy as part of a healthy and balanced life, but now it seems to be dressed up in mindfulness and pseudo-psychological terms, which I also don't think helps students. It sends the message that there is something wrong with normal emotions that require some form of psychological wellbeing intervention, rather than doing something your enjoy to switch off after a long day.

EmeraldShamrock
Yes, but old school teaching methods vs modern teaching methods is a valid change. Improved pastoral care is a valid change. Expecting teachers to do less of what they're professionally qualified to do in order to do more of what they're not isn't a good move.

*As a teacher I totally agree with you .
There was a point where talk about resilience was about encouraging children to accept we all make mistakes, that there are ups and downs in life, that we all need balance in life, that hobbies are important, that if they have a low test score then it's not the end of the world, we can learn from feedback, sometimes we will be selected for the football team or the leading role but old school teaching methods vs modern teaching methods is a valid change. Improved pastoral care is a valid change. Expecting teachers to do less of what they're professionally qualified to do in order to do more of what they're not isn't a good move.
I agree with you.
Modern teaching methods have improved miles, you can't fault it.
Even without wellbeing the care and confidence DC get through teaching today is outstanding treated as individuals.
I'm sure as a teacher there is enough to do it is unfortunate that you're doing jobs parents should do too on top of teachings.
The summer is nearly here.

Sorry I didn't mean to copy your entire post.

The problem is that life isn't always perfect but their is now a sort of entitlement that things in school should ensure no stress etc - whereas growing up, overcoming difficulties teaches you to cope. Safeguarding and protection is important but not everything is under that label. The explosion of anxiety and depression labels is in my view over the top - yes we all suffer anxiety and children always have but we need to concentrate on getting on with life not giving everything a label and almost encouraging contagious counselling

UK Primary schools

There is no such thing as “U.K. primary schools”

What happens in Schools In England, doesn’t reflect what is happening across the U.K.

My daughter is autistic. Her mental health has been shredded this last year. She’s now on AD’s.

She now appears to be subjected to three times as many well being drop down days than normal. Each of these brings further disruption to her routine. Her anxiety increases because she knows she needs to be in class. She’s forced to do activities that stress her out.

What she and her friends actually need is consistency and understanding from their teachers on an every day basis. Not this lip service to well being or a vital class being cancelled because a mental health assess my has over run.

@MintyMabel

UK Primary schools

There is no such thing as “U.K. primary schools”

What happens in Schools In England, doesn’t reflect what is happening across the U.K.

Very true. What’s happening elsewhere in the UK? Is there no EWB curriculum at all?