Mental Health in Middle School
By: Reva Kale
Ask any adult who went through the American public school system and they’ll tell you, “middle school was tough.” My middle school experience was chock-full of awkward moments: failing grades in math, food caught in braces, badly styled hand me down outfits. Making friends and paying attention in class at such a vulnerable age was difficult, and I did not have the added stress of a global pandemic hanging over my head.
I recently decided to volunteer at a local after school program in my community. I honestly thought that the experience would be easy, that I would just talk to the kids, do a little homework help, and maybe complete an art project or two. But I soon realized that middle school was nothing like I remembered. The children that I work with are energetic and sociable, but two years of distance learning have left many of them struggling to form connections. As I was reminded by a teacher upon first entering the school, COVID has lessened their attention spans and they are barely interested in picking up a pencil to draw, let alone do their homework. Some of the few who do sit down and speak to me have admitted that they experience depression … a concept I could not even name at the age of twelve or thirteen. Their minds appear less worried about failing grades in math, food caught in braces, and badly styled hand me downs, and more preoccupied with a different sort of stress – the deep long lasting kind that comes from months locked away at home with no social interaction, months spent with their heads hung low in front of a computer screen, watching as the world around them contoured and collapsed into chaos. These are the middle schoolers of 2022. These are the students who are now being expected to “return to normal,” to re-enter school and re-socialize as if their lives did not recently turn upside down.
Our students are, point blank, the future of our society. Protecting their mental health is crucial to ensuring that our world is filled with tough, creative, and empathetic individuals who are ready to tackle whatever life throws at them. We need to show our students that in this time of chaos and uncertainty, we have their backs and we are determined to help them thrive. That is why we need to direct MORE funding to mental health resources in our public schools, hire more counselors and therapists, and thoroughly train our teachers to respond to a variety of needs.