Mental Health Issues In American Schools: Article Analysis

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Mental Health is an issue in American schools, and his article addresses the issue. It is primarily about the role adults play in recognizing students state of mind and catching the early signs of a serious mental illness. The article goes through a list of roles such as parents/guardians, teachers, school counselors, etc. The article states the jobs of the adult, but it also states that those jobs can be impossible. For example, it states that a teacher has a duty to make sure his or her students are mentally healthy by observing any differences in their behavior. The article then goes to explain the reality, that it is very difficult for a teacher to do this when they have to worry about: raising student test scores, grading papers/tests, and prepare lessons plus they have hundreds of students to take care of.
I truly enjoyed this article,
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That being said the article has a story about a student who had to deal with mental illnesses and how it affected her school life. “She says that in the span of a few months, she went from honor roll to failing. She put on weight; other kids called her "fat." She began cutting herself with a razor every day. And she missed a ton of school.” This struck me profoundly. I have a familiarity with that situation all too well; most of my friends have dealt with it. In today's education system, schools stress the importance of doing well on standardized tests, being in several extracurricular activities and volunteer work; and if you don't do well in all these things you're a failure. This causes immense anxiety in students and can even lead to severe depression. My friends have often had nervous breakdowns because of these extreme pressures the education system places upon them. On several occasions, my friends have had these