School Anxiety Not Acceptable
No Child Should Be Left Behind!
Who hasn't suffered from school anxiety? It's like we are hardwired to believe that school equal stress. I have seldom had a conversation with anyone who has more good memories of school than bad.We all spend at least 12 to 20 years in school depending on when we start and how far we go. Of course, some dropout and others go even further, but stress associated with going to school is a part of every person's life. Sometimes people take dramatic negative steps to deal with school anxiety and others suffer in silence. But, whatever coping mechanism is chosen and whatever degrees of success are achieved in using these coping skills, it is never much fun. The damage that is caused by a bad school experience can last a lifetime and without proper support systems to help us navigate these turbulent waters, our feelings about those experiences can color our lives forever. Educational wellness is so important that it really should be a law. We force our children to get an education and we really should be doing a much better job of making sure the experience is a good one. The odd blip or negative experience never hurt anyone long-term, but years and years of emotional neglect in the educational arena is a serious problem. If we aren't going to fix the education system, then we owe it to our children to teach real coping and problem-solving skills. But to throw them to the proverbial wolves with no tools to deal with those wolves is so unfair. Just saying that everyone feels school anxiety is a cop out. School should be the best experience of our lives. Too many kids get lost in the system. Too many kids fall between the cracks. Since school seems to be all about grading, then maybe the public education institution needs to be graded. In my opinion, it is sitting at about a C minus. Now, don't get me wrong, there are definitely schools out there doing a good job like the ones identified in Dr. Steven Covey's book called "The Leader In Me." You can check out these schools on his website at
www.stephencovey.com/leaderinme/.
But the commitment to kids he speaks of, needs to be the rule not the exception. No child should be left behind. Many would say that there isn't enough funding in the education system to make sure that no child is left behind. But, I say that the system needs to be completely revamped and then there will be plenty of money. In the meantime, we must make it a social imperative to teach our kids better coping and problem solving skills.
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