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Nicola Bell's avatar

I’ve worked in education for several years now. Previously as a Secondary School Biology Teacher, and for the past 4 years in the University Higher Education sector. The situation is dire. Students are so utterly pandered to. They are most educated in the fact it seems, that they can claim offence, distress or trauma at the drop of a hat because it will strike fear into staff that have no way to contest it (I’ve heard way too many times how ‘traumatised’ students are about events that are no such thing; as a society we are too fond of exaggerating and misusing the English language in order to twist standard and mundane daily happenings into major dramatic events. Completely stretching the truth). Staff are often blamed for students’ failings; personal responsibility isn’t taken and if they complain, the bias of empathy is usually towards them.

Most of my colleagues indulge ‘mental health issues’ because educational institutions are so dogmatic about it. The great thing about facts is they can’t be argued with but feelings and subjective views can be used as a manipulative tool. Quite honestly I remember skipping classes at school and Uni - because that’s what many students will do. Most of us at some point don’t want to go to school or work and would love the opportunity to get out of it. Particularly those with crappy jobs or better things to do. The difference now is the student (or employee) can claim some mental health issue (of questionable diagnosis), whereas back when I was a student there was no excuse for skipping - it was just a fair cop if we were caught; we knew we were taking the p***, it was our fault. Because there was no excuse so readily handed on a plate to us. And this extended to working life thereafter - you got your butt into work or you didn’t get paid.

Our current culture has created a lack of resilience, and encourages self diagnosis which becomes a popular card to use - to claim false victimhood and wear it as a badge of honour. If it wasn’t a badge of honour and it didn’t bring financial or societal benefit then it wouldn’t be a prominent issue. Simply misdiagnosed or over diagnosed. Many have lost perspective and possibly their nerve to tell students it might be better for them not to dwell too much and move on from their circular angst… but parents on the other hand do say this to their children with confidence when they’re pulling a fast one or are catastrophising - it would serve our society much better if we did the same in educational institutions and the workplace. Then maybe we wouldn’t have a society of people constantly obsessing about themselves and focusing inwardly so much. They might then instead just be forced to get out there, and get on with experiencing an authentic life with all the positives and negatives that brings. After all, that’s just life…

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DulyNoted's avatar

I am currently reading The End of Trauma, which notes how society is over estimating the number of cases of PTSD and how important resilience is for all of us. That’s how these diagnoses of mental health disorders feel. Why can’t we just accept the fact that everyone is different?

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