Hello! My name is Nur and I am from Turkey. I’m an IBDP Business Management Year 1 HL student learning online with Pamoja.
It is a well-known fact that everyone in our age group is having difficulties to manage and overcome their anxiety levels and reach nirvana in their lives.
I am aware that lately all of the IB and AS/A level students are anguished about their future which effects their social lives. Sometimes advice from our parents isn’t satisfying for most of us and we prefer to hide our condition from our peers too.
Therefore, anxiety levels rise without noticing and lead to isolation of ourselves. How can schools obstruct this issue and establish a peaceful environment in both school life and students’ personal lives?
Recently, I have read an article about Yale University’s ‘Happiness Class’ in 2018. It is recorded that 1,200 students, nearly one-fourth of Yale undergraduates, registered on this course.
The majority of the students had jeopardized their high school life to be accepted into a high-ranking university like Yale. Thus, Yale University created this course in order to establish happiness, good habits and social connections in the university’s environment.
Yale College Council (YCC) has published a report on mental health of students which includes three main titles of ‘Campus Culture,’ ‘Peer Support,’ and ‘Institutional Resources.’
YCC prepared questions for each title and conducted interviews. Throughout the analysis of the results, YCC has explained the findings/recommendations and has opened several mental health organizations like ‘Mind Matters’ for mental health issues that students have.
I believe that if high schools examine the anxiety levels and mental health of students through surveys and interviews, accomplishments could be achieved.
According to the responses gathered through primary research, schools can initiate ‘Happiness Classes’ like Yale University and do ungraded quizzes to see how much students have progressed.
The topics that most likely increase our anxiety levels in adolescent years are concerns for the future, high expectations to succeed from our parents, adaptation to peer environments, social media, etc. Schools can open extracurricular classes for these common specific issues that students have.
As Epictetus declares; “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”
No matter the problem, take a genuine interest in all the details of your daily life and focus and plan your actions, not results.
Stay Joyful!
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