Schools need to relieve stress on students
We need balance in our public schools. Our state public school children are in a mental health crisis. One out of four students at Coastal Carolina University has mental health issues. I believe that the ratio in elementary, middle, and high school is even higher than 1 out of 4.
This problem has been created by the public school system since the schools were deregulated in the ‘90s. Our children need their physical, mental, and spiritual needs met. The whole child needs to be taught. We are spiritual beings and move and live and get our being from God.
The following are ideas on how to relieve the stress on our public school students and thus help alleviate the problem. The implementation of these ideas will improve our public schools. With less stress the children will learn more in less time.
Our children need more outdoor exercise and sunshine. Through more recess time, children will learn social skills, learn leadership skills, get to know their classmates, will not need attention deficit disorder pills, and will lose weight through play. There will be less office referrals and discipline problems.
The school total hours per day should be 6 ½ hours:
1. 4½ hours of academic, arts, and PE instruction
2. One hour of outdoor recess (15 minutes around 10 a.m. and 45 minutes after lunch)
3. Thirty minutes for lunch.
Ideas for Improvements:
1. Shorten the school day by one hour. Let children finish their sleep cycles. Six and one half hours is enough of required time in school.
2. Add a 15-minute recess outdoors at 10 a.m. Children are ready to climb the walls by 10 a.m. and need to be outdoors for a break.
3. Add a 40-minute recess outdoors after a 20-minute lunch.
4. Abolish the 4 block system in high school. This is a lazy method of instruction.
5. Use double periods for chemistry, physics, anatomy, etc.
6. Make naps available for kindergarten.
7. Put play stations back into kindergarten.
8. Make sure that each child is taught to hold a pencil correctly the first time and monitor it. Monitor the way a child makes his/her letters and numerals in both manuscript and cursive.
9. Make sure that each child is placed on his/her instructional level in every subject.
10. Make sure that each child is reading on a 3rd grade level before promoting them to 4th grade.
11. Make sure that each child has mastered the math facts before leaving 4th grade. All future math requires expertise in the math facts.
12. Put a monitor on the playground all day long. Instead of giving a hyper child a pill, give him/her a pass to the playground for 25 minutes.
13. Check the reading level of each textbook. Make sure that the child misses no more than 5 words per page.
14. Have the private sector to give each kindergartener the “Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes to See” by Kenneth Taylor. Give every 3rd grader “The Egermeier Bible Story Book” by Elsie Egermeier. This book has questions in the back of it with the answers. This is a big help for parents.
Some mental health problems are caused by improper religious training. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Reading these books will change the child and the parent. God’s Word does not return void. Advise the parent to put the child in his/her lap and read to the child and discuss the story with the child. Advise the parent to use the questions in the back of the book.
One in every four of our children and college students has mental problems, probably more. It is time that something is done about it. You may earn an education but one must be mentally healthy to use it. God is the author of a sound mind. God also tells us that if we want wisdom to ask God who gives it liberally and upbraideth it not.
We need children who are educated spiritually, socially, mentally, and physically –the whole child.
The writer lives in Conway.
This story was originally published January 18, 2016 at 8:44 AM with the headline "Schools need to relieve stress on students."