Ensuring quality student life and education across schools in the U.S.
How can we combat the student mental health epidemic by leveraging research & design to inspire shifts in human perception, experiences, and behavior?
The Questions
- Why isn’t more being done about the mental health epidemic?
- Why don’t we care more about what we teach our kids?
- How can I teach my son that happiness is as important as success if I spend so much time working?
- Why does it take disasters like school shootings or suicides for people to take action? By the time the worst has happened, it’s already too late.
- How do I tell my parents that the life they want for me isn’t the life I want for myself if I don’t actually know what I want for my life?
- How do I take care of mental health when my family can’t afford mental healthcare?
Introduction
QUOTE
Mental health, particularly in young adults, is one of our nation’s greatest challenges.
When school success is measured solely on academic performance, the pressure trickles down through the schools and onto the students. These pressures build up day by day into near-impossible expectations, and is detrimental to mental health in this critical developmental phase. The lack of mental health awareness further exacerbates the mental health epidemic.
Wellness in education is something that everyone cares about —
The fact is that wellness is a critical metric in both the workforce and a country’s overall success, and school systems should start adopting these metrics. If we truly want to prepare students for success, then we need to start measuring for wellness and equip students with the tools to manage success through a more balanced approach
CHALLENGE
- Understanding the mental health epidemic from perspective of students, teachers, educators, and scholars
- Identifying the weakest points of the system and the inflection points with the greatest impact to students
- Learning from success stories
FINDINGS
- Understanding the mental health epidemic from perspective of students, teachers, educators, and scholars
- Identifying the weakest points of the system and the inflection points with the greatest impact to students
- Learning from success stories
OUTCOME
- An index that can be adopted nationally to XX the way we measure our school systems
- Applying sucess stories into a SIMPLE curriculum that school districts and easily adopt (includes a course in life & goal alignment, wellness literacy, school-life balance, and skill development)
OVERVIEW
Schools are measured solely on academic performance.
An expanded approach to education makes room for more healthy, balanced, and effective growth
CHALLENGE
- Understanding the mental health epidemic from perspective of students, teachers, educators, and scholars
- Identifying the weakest points of the system and the inflection points with the greatest impact to students
- Learning from success stories
OUR CONSIDERATIONS
Schools are measured solely on academic performance.
An expanded approach to education makes room for more healthy, balanced, and effective growth
Introduction
Mental health, particularly in young adults, is one of our nation’s greatest challenges. When school success is measured solely on academic performance, the pressure trickles down through the schools and onto the students. These pressures build up day by day into near-impossible expectations, and is detrimental to mental health in this critical developmental phase. The lack of mental health awareness further exacerbates the mental health epidemic.
The fact is that wellness is a critical metric in both the workforce and a country’s overall success, and school systems should start adopting these metrics. If we truly want to prepare students for success, then we need to start measuring for wellness and equip students with the tools to manage success through a more balanced approach
Why?
We started with the bigger question of why.
Interviews
To find answers, WTA researchers talked to students and educators on
The fact is that wellness is a critical metric in both the workforce and a country’s overall success, and school systems should start adopting these metrics. If we truly want to prepare students for success, then we need to start measuring for wellness and equip students with the tools to manage success through a more balanced approach
Research
Quality of Student Life Index
Reevaluating the way we measure school success, and reshaping the way students view success
Design
The EQ Journal
Building wellness & skill development into the school curriculum, and strengthening students’ relationships with themselves, with each other, and with the world