Today, students are impacted by their mental health. It gives them different thoughts regarding how they feel about school. Therefore, students also struggle keeping their grades at a reasonable average. Most of them try to improve their grades while dealing with their mental health.
This article focuses on Crownpoint High School, in Crownpoint, New Mexico, and includes interviews with those who are struggling with their grades and those who are not. People who struggle with school try to maintain their grades while they are tired throughout the day. The question I have is, “What do they think of school and how does school impact them?” Exhaustion, stress, and negative mental thinking may take a toll on students. I plan to do this research before the deadline of the assignment.
According to my survey conducted at Crownpoint High School, most students agree that they struggle with schoolwork due to mental health. I feel for my peers who struggle with mental health, which impacts their ability to complete schoolwork. Every day we attend eight classes for about 45 minutes each. Therefore, this gives us the disadvantage of trying to remember all the details that were taught throughout the day. Evidence from the survey indicates that stress can affect students throughout the day and build on their mental health challenges. The main focus of this article is to survey students with mental health issues to find out the truth about what students are going through because not everything is made of rainbows, unicorns, and puppies.
During my research I received ten student responses to my online survey. All ten students agreed that mental health affected their schoolwork. This included stress, tiredness, and doubt. Three of the students responded they do not doubt mental health will keep them from having good grades. According to the New Mexico Public Department, New Mexico is ranked number 5 in the United States for High School students experiencing mental health challenges, with a remarkable 35% reporting various struggles.
One of my survey participants answered, “yes,” mental health does affect their schoolwork. The same participant answered, “no,” they do not encourage themselves at school. However, they believe they will do better in school. My second participant answered, “yes” to all my questions on my survey; mental health does affect their schoolwork, performance, and self-determination. Another participant answered, “yes.” This respondent indicated struggles with mental health, but they encourage themselves to do better.
In an interview, an anonymous student participant answered, “I think it [mental health] does [present challenges], because when your emotions are all over the place, you can’t work. You are trying to figure out those emotions and you are stressed with all the things that are going on.”
A second student also responded regarding their beliefs on mental health issues: “If people are mentally challenged with health issues, exceptional care is needed for this type of issue.”
I also asked whether mental health issues are present from birth, or if they emerge over time. One participant asserted that “It’s mostly about what that person is going through. Mostly what they physically go through each day. If it’s mental… then it’s a challenge to take part in the issues and have them implanted in the mind. Although, its mostly what the individual goes through every day.”
Due to my research, I agree that students struggle with schoolwork due to mental health. The results I gathered make me believe that students struggle with mental health. Many of my participants were not surprised by the statistics showing the percentage of New Mexico high school students faced with mental health challenges. Many high school students do in fact struggle with mental health. As I expected in the beginning, many high school students are experiencing the same issues. In this modern world, there are a lot of distractions and personal problems we face every day. As high school students, we are pushed to do better, we are worried about the choices we make, we are worried about grades, and then we have our own personal problems. I believe this research has made me aware of my behaviors that may be related to mental health. My reason for conducting this research is that students can have effects from mental health, which would be anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, etc. Students are held to high expectations at school, which may cause their mental health to be challenged accordingly.
To students in New Mexico high schools, from your local peer in Crownpoint, New Mexico, I feel what struggle you go through every day. The peer pressure, the sudden rise of anxiety, the waves of depression, and the relief of turning in long – nights of assignments. You are not alone.
