This past week West Boca students experienced Palm Beach County’s annual mental health learning program, provided by the software ReThinkEd.
On Wednesday and Thursday, students watched either one or two lessons in each class on topics such as: meditating methods, staying focused, consent culture, and preventing suicide. Lessons were followed with provided discussion questions.
The lessons were fairly short, with videos lasting no more than four minutes. Many students preferred these shorter videos compared to the longer lessons provided by Suite 360 in former years.
Though, because the lessons were compressed to fit a tight schedule–multiple lessons per class in each period for two days straight–there were some complaints from students and teachers alike. Teachers either taught the lessons for the entire class or kept it very short, but the former caused many student absences for the two day period.
Teachers feel like the lessons cut into class time too much and students lose interest the second the lesson goes over 10 minutes.
While the information is surely valuable, there were also complaints over the timing of each lesson when combined for a longer class period. In 2nd period, students were shown a saddening and thoughtful lesson on the prevention of suicide, but the next lesson was an upbeat mood about how to stay focused on a task. The organization of the lessons almost causes the intention of the lessons to be lost in disorganization.
While the district has come far in terms of the methods to educate students and teachers on mental health, there is still a ways to go in order for the purpose of the lessons to hold value.
