Solution IV:
Rewrite 9th Grade Mental Health Curriculum
1. Explanation We want to rewrite the freshman health curriculum to really create a change in mental health awareness and to reduce the stigma that mental health disorders carry with them. We want the incoming freshman to learn about mental health disorders in an effective way early on in high school so they all know the signs and symptoms and are comfortable with this topic as they go through high school. Our goal is to make the curriculum more inviting, accurate, and meaningful, and to not have teachers avoid topics that they feel students might think are uncomfortable. This will happen by making the curriculum more hands-on and relatable to the students going through it. In this solution, the state-level government will play a role in ensuring the information presented is valid and appropriate for a wide range of students.
2. Reasoning From the results of our survey and research our group has done, it is clear that mental health is really prevalent at Ridge High School. We want students to be able to recognize symptoms on themselves and on there friends of different mental health disorders. This way students can get the help they need right away, and not wait until the disorder becomes worse. We also want students to feel more comfortable talking about their mental wellness because it is a huge part of people's lives yet people try to avoid talking about it. Through this solution students will become more open and honest about the things that they struggle with and will see that they are not alone in this struggle.
3. Supporters Those in support of this solution would be students, parents and teachers. The students would appreciate this new curriculum because they will experience the direct benefit of it. It is helping all students to cope with their mental health disorders and teaching the others about mental health disorders so they are more aware and knowledgeable on this topic. Parents would support this topic because they also suffer when there child has a mental health problem, so if there child's well being is increased through this better education then the parents will be happier as well. Teachers would be in support of this because they want all their students to succeed and if a mental health disorders is in the way of some students potential, they would be in support of a curriculum that can help those dealing with a mental health disorders and hopefully lessen the amount of people with them.
4. Opponents The Physical Health teachers may oppose this because they would have to change their curriculum and they may dislike not using the same lessons from the past years. Also some students may feel uncomfortable talking about their mental health in front of other students if they are shyer.
5. Implementation We want to get this new curriculum in as soon as possible. With the Physical education curriculum there are certain parts that are required from the state, and because of this we also want to make freshman health a whole semester so the teachers can go more in depth and not feel rushed on this very important topic. We believe that integrating aspects of mental health education in each years health class would have more of a lasting impact on students because it would be discussed every year in high school. This would allow students to be more equipped to deal with the different stressors that each year will bring. We also want to make sure that students cannot leave their health class in all grades for lab or a music lessons, this will stop people from falling behind and prevent them from not feeling connected to the information they are learning.
2. Reasoning From the results of our survey and research our group has done, it is clear that mental health is really prevalent at Ridge High School. We want students to be able to recognize symptoms on themselves and on there friends of different mental health disorders. This way students can get the help they need right away, and not wait until the disorder becomes worse. We also want students to feel more comfortable talking about their mental wellness because it is a huge part of people's lives yet people try to avoid talking about it. Through this solution students will become more open and honest about the things that they struggle with and will see that they are not alone in this struggle.
3. Supporters Those in support of this solution would be students, parents and teachers. The students would appreciate this new curriculum because they will experience the direct benefit of it. It is helping all students to cope with their mental health disorders and teaching the others about mental health disorders so they are more aware and knowledgeable on this topic. Parents would support this topic because they also suffer when there child has a mental health problem, so if there child's well being is increased through this better education then the parents will be happier as well. Teachers would be in support of this because they want all their students to succeed and if a mental health disorders is in the way of some students potential, they would be in support of a curriculum that can help those dealing with a mental health disorders and hopefully lessen the amount of people with them.
4. Opponents The Physical Health teachers may oppose this because they would have to change their curriculum and they may dislike not using the same lessons from the past years. Also some students may feel uncomfortable talking about their mental health in front of other students if they are shyer.
5. Implementation We want to get this new curriculum in as soon as possible. With the Physical education curriculum there are certain parts that are required from the state, and because of this we also want to make freshman health a whole semester so the teachers can go more in depth and not feel rushed on this very important topic. We believe that integrating aspects of mental health education in each years health class would have more of a lasting impact on students because it would be discussed every year in high school. This would allow students to be more equipped to deal with the different stressors that each year will bring. We also want to make sure that students cannot leave their health class in all grades for lab or a music lessons, this will stop people from falling behind and prevent them from not feeling connected to the information they are learning.
Solution IV Pros
This will teach students different ways to deal with there mental health disorders, and know how and when is the right time to get help if they have a mental health disorder. Students will be learning about these mental health disorders more positively and learn the tools to help with them. |
Solution IV Cons
It will take a lot of time and hard work to create a new 9th grade health curriculum. With a whole new curriculum it will be more difficult for teachers to teach in the beginning, this because it is new for them and they are not used to it. |