1. The amount of issue on mental health increasing

2. The number of mental health issues among younger children

3. The results of doing nothing

4. Being proactive in mental health

5. Counter agreement regarding mental health classes

Students will exerience more mental health issues like stress as a result of forcing students to do mental health classes to graduate. This is true on some points but considering the current situation, it is better than doing nothing.

Ms Carillo has a fairly wide view of things and doesn't just consume what is being said in society but also checks the point of someone's words. The summary of the interview with the questions provided her opinion on the questions provided would state that the safety bubble that children have is fading away as a result of social media that provide the perfect standards that children would have to meet with these standards being impossible to meet without the knowledge and willpower needed to do so that isn't even necessary. Without regulations from the government, the problem with mental health among children is on the rise.  They should be providing mental health classes, especially in low-income areas.  These classes shouldn't be a requirement but an option or a substitute for some other classes. The government should try to address the situation by funding mental health to make it free among citizens and providing a therapist at each school to address the problem.

Having experienced some of the issues years ago I can say a bit about how it had affected me slowing me down especially as it wants you to feel like nothing matters but of course, I can't represent everyone as we all have various issues on why were in that situation.  I would rather not let those around me experience the same issues I had faced.

Should Schools have a credit-earning class on mental health as a requirement?

          As we have to deal with the many struggles of life, we sometimes forget that we have to take care of ourselves as time passes. In our current society most parts of the government tend to neglect the issue of mental health among the younger population. The issue is on the rise especially in more recent years as more and more people gain access to society with their impossible “standards” that chips away at the viewers who beat themselves down as a result of not being able to meet them. High schools should at least have a mental health class as a requirement in order to graduate.

     Within the past decade, children and teens with mental health issues have increased by 17%. This is made increasingly worse as social media becomes increasingly relevant in younger populations, resulting in the portion of mental stress that is ongoing. This is still not counteracted enough as there aren’t many options especially in areas with high poverty rates. Without doing anything with the ongoing situation, many things will occur as a result of it such as the increase in debilitating anxiety, depresssion and suicide rates. This is something everyone who has experienced a variation of these problems can pretty much say no one should deal with this problem alone.

     Without any intervention to handle the mental health issues, the problems with mental health will stay on the rise. The problem with mental health towards stress, depression, and suicide among college members within the past year has reported that 66% of college students had debilitating stress, 45% felt depressed, and 12% have considered suicide (Page). These numbers are extremely concerning especially since within the past year the consideration of suicide among college students that answered is above 10%. (Page). Mentioned previously in the article, Page states in the past decade, “in the younger population ages 6-17, have now gone up to 17% within a decade”, this is referring to the psychiatric illness. Both of these show how much of an issue mental health has become in the younger population even for college students.(Page)

     There are a lot of young people who face more mental health issues than we think. When you don’t experience it yourself or witness someone else you care about show what they are facing,  we tend to think that it isn’t as relevant or at least relevant enough to be added to everyone’s requirement for graduation. In actuality, “1 in 6 American children aged 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year” according to a statistics shown by NAMI. It can also be added that “50–80% of school-aged children do not receive the mental health care they need” (6 Reasons Why Mental Health Training for Educators is Critical). This shows the neglect or unawareness that society has towards mental health.

We should be proactive by adding relevant information to schools, preparing them for what’s to come as well as to scenarios that we are likely going to face in the future. This can be said in high stress situations that don't involve academic knowledge such as an abusive relationship. Usually in extremely stressful situations such as being involved in domestic violence, a grade in math isn’t going to do anything to quell the situation making us not prepared in a situation like domestic violence or abusive relationships as they provide no information on how to handle that situation. Speaking about domestic violence, mental health classes can also branch out to drugs or alcohol which has also been involved in at least 40% of domestic violence cases and up to 60% of all cases reported according to American Addiction Centers. Being proactive in this regard could make a noticeable decrease in the amount of domestic violence cases overtime.

     Although some experts may say that adding mental health to the classes we have to do in high school will increase the stress of students,  they can’t deny the fact that the issue of mental health is already a problem that is still ongoing as we can’t deny that the data shown by the National college Health Assessment. Instead of doing nothing we should be proactive about it as children at a young age should “learn how to recognize mental health issues or signs of it and seek mental health” (Page). This is why it’s reasonable for us to say that we should have mental health classes and based on the issues shown throughout our society, it isn’t unreasonable to say that we should have a mental health class as a graduation requirement. It is possible to treat mental health, and the earlier, the better as doing nothing will lead to the accumulation of stress will make the treatment much harder to achieve the effects. 

     Based on what we have seen, there are multiple reasons why we should have mental health classes as a graduation requirement as we can see that keeping the way we deal with mental health as is will lead to mental health issues becoming increasingly relevant until it become so problematic that we could all get dragged in and permanently have a negative effect on society as a whole. Based on an interview conducted with a teacher in this regard. Schools especially in high-poverty areas are lacking the funding in order to have mental health classes, preventing schools from even dealing with the situation as things get worse. Currently, we are lacking options to help deal with mental health issues as based on the interview done, society isn’t doing much as in the current state, it is barely supported. If there’s something we should do at least, it should be what has been stated previously among other things that could also be done. We should be proactive about this situation so that our future generations will not break in the inevitable situations to come like many of us now have faced.

“Health Education.” Web, www.schools.nyc.gov/learning/subjects/health-education. Accessed 8 Mar. 2024. 

“Mental Health in Schools.” NAMI, www.nami.org/Advocacy/Policy-Priorities/Improving-Health/Mental-Health-in-Schools. Accessed 8 Mar. 2024. 

“How Drugs & Alcohol Can Fuel Violent Behaviors.” American Addiction Centers, 7 Feb. 2024, americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/addiction-and-violence. 

Page, Sherrie. “As Part of Admissions, Colleges Should Require High School Students to Take Mental Health Courses (Opinion).” Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs, www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/05/11/part-admissions-colleges-should-require-high-school-students-take-mental-health. Accessed 5 Mar. 2024. 

“6 Reasons Why Mental Health Training for Educators Is Critical [+ Resources].” University of San Diego - Professional & Continuing Education, 16 Nov. 2023, pce.sandiego.edu/classroom-mental-health-for-teachers/.