School fosters mental illness by stripping students of control and Independence
Anxiety disorder, depression, and sense of helplessness, have all increased in young people:
- As of 2010, 85 percent of students have depression and anxiety scores higher than the average in the 50s
- As of 2010, suicide rates have quadrupled for students under 15 and and doubled for those between 15 and 24
- Scores for MMPI and MMPI-A tests rose significantly between 1938 and 1989
As any good scientist will tell you, correlation does not prove causation. The observation of increase in mental illness in young people as play has declined does not by itself prove that the latter causes the former. However, a strong logical case can be built for such causation.
Those undergoing significant stress are more likely to develop depression. An organism will feel less stressed if they believe they have control over a situation. In school, however, children cannot make their own decisions; their job is to do as they are told. Public schools serve to manufacture a manageable population and to put down dissent and originality. The school must In school, children learn that what matters are test scores. Even outside of school, children spend increasing amounts of their time in settings where they are directed, protected, catered to, ranked, judged, criticized, praised, and rewarded by adults.
In a series of research studies conducted in wealthy suburban neighborhoods in the northeastern United States, psychologist Suniya Luthar and her colleagues found that those children who felt most pressured by their parents to achieve in school and were most frequently shuttled from one extracurricular activity to another were the most likely to feel anxious or depressed. Every time we reduce children’s opportunities for free learning, we reduce further their opportunities to learn to control their own lives, to learn that they are not simply victims of circumstances and powerful others.
References
- Gray, Peter. (2013). Free to Learn Chapter 1. What Have We Done to Childhood? (p. 38). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Politics / Education / Psychiatry Status:☀️