My Name Is Jessica, But I Could Be Any Student

 



My Name Is Jessica, But I Could Be Any Student

By Myles Cooley, Ph.D., ABPP

My name is Jessica, but it could be Raul, Dashieka, or Jonathan. I’m ten years old and in the fifth grade. I think I’m more than shy. I won’t raise my hand in class. I’m worried the teacher will call on me, so I don’t look at her. I hate it when I have to walk to the front of the class to give a report. Everyone’s looking at me. I hate to think what they’re thinking about me. When I give the report, my hands and voice are shaking. It seems like forever until I can go back to my seat.

Actually, other kids seem to think I’m pretty smart. But when we go to lunch, recess, or PE, I don’t know what to say to them. They’re all joking around, and I’m totally quiet. When I think of something I could say, I think it might be stupid, so I don’t say anything.

I wish my teachers understood how nervous I am. I wish they understood that my behavior means I might have social anxiety disorder. If they understood me, maybe they would make things a little easier. Maybe they wouldn’t call on me unless I raised my hand. Maybe I could do another project instead of an oral report.

I have social anxiety disorder, but I could have depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or other mental health disorders that one out of six kids have. Kids who have these problems usually don’t cause behavior problems in the classroom, so teachers don’t know there’s anything bothering us. Take my word for it, things bother us a lot. We have a hard time learning and doing our work. 

I don’t blame teachers for not knowing how to recognize these problems. For some reason I don’t understand, teachers don’t learn about these things when they get teaching degrees.

I don’t get it. Teachers are so worried about how well we’ll do on all those standardized tests. I wish teachers understood that the way kids feel has a lot to do with what how well we’ll do on tests. If they knew this, maybe they’d be more interested in our problems and feelings. Then they’d be able to help us with these problems, so we’d do better on tests.

I’ve heard teachers talk about something called “differentiation.” I heard this is an idea that says kids learn in different ways, and teachers should teach kids according to how they learn. Well, I think that kids have different personal problems, too. Some of these are mental health problems. There are millions of us in schools. Our problems get in the way of learning, doing our work, and getting along with other kids. I think if someone would help teachers recognize and understand us, teachers and kids would be better off. It’s not all that complicated. People who run our schools just have to want to understand us as much as we want to be understood.

Memo to Florida School Administrators:

Jessica is a wise child. She also probably senses that the pandemic has made this situation worse. Almost half of all parents reported the pandemic contributed to mental health problems in one of their children.1 Hospital mental health emergency department visits increased by 25 percent for younger children and by 30 percent for older children during the pandemic.1

There has been a response to this situation. A group of eleven non-profit organizations recently joined forces to form the Hopeful Futures Campaign. Its goal is to make sure that every school in the country has a comprehensive mental health plan in place when schools open in the fall 2021.2 The House of Representatives passed a bill in April 2021 that reauthorizes and expands grants for school-based mental health programs.

Myles Cooley, Ph.D., ABPP, (drmylescooley.com) is a Board Certified, licensed psychologist in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, and author of A Practical Guide to Mental Health & Learning Disorders for Every Educator from Free Spirit Publishing.

Free Spirit is your resource for social emotional learning and mental health resources. FASA members receive 15% off individual titles and free shipping on orders of $300 or more with code EEV40 at freespirit.com or call 1.800.735.7323.

  1. Sandhya Raman, “Children Face Added Mental Health Struggles During Pandemic,” Roll Call, May 19, 2021, https://www.rollcall.com/2021/05/19/children-face-added-mental-health-struggles-during-pandemic/.
  2. Taylor Avery, “Hopeful Futures Campaign Calls on American Schools to Have Comprehensive Student Mental Health Plans,” USA Today, May 26, 2021,  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/05/26/hopeful-futures-campaign-schools-need-student-mental-health-plans/7452068002/.

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