Depression and anxiety makes learners unable to concentrate in class. The learners find it difficult to work with colleagues to do homework, discussions or any other learning activity. The victims of these mood disorders tend to be highly disruptive and can easily get angry. Therefore, other learners may learn to avoid them or even run away from them. Their behaviors changes and becomes a key deterrent to their learning. For instance, they can opt to stay away from classes or even shy away from teachers. They feel like they are being unfairly targeted by teachers and colleagues even if this is not the case. Therefore, teachers find it difficult to control the way learners with these disorders behave in and outside class. The problem even becomes worse if the learners are not helped. They should be made to know that no one is unfairly targeting them. When this happens, the learners may not shy away participating in learning activities.
Depression and anxiety are leading causes of school children missing school without any good reason. The available researches suggest that truancy among school children with depression and anxiety is three times higher than that of learners living normally. The learners with depression and anxiety see school as highly punishing and thus not good for them (Bhujade, 2017). They perceive that their colleagues and teachers do not understand them. As a result, they choose to find any reason to stay away from school. For instance, they can fake illness or even hide to avoid being sent to school. The outcome of this is that the learners expose themselves to more risks. First, they may be easily convinced by other people to get into dangerous activities such as using drugs. Secondly, the learners are often subjected to harsh disciplinary measures when they miss school. Therefore, their move to avoid school and the perceived harsh treatment brings them more problems (Millett-Thompson, 2017). The disciplinary measures often add the learners more negative feelings that increases their negative feelings. Thirdly, a learner who misses school will ultimately get poor grades. The learners are thus with increased chances of scoring poorly in exams and this makes it difficult for them to get relevant competences and skills. They thus remain not as competitive as their colleagues in the job markets.
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Learners with depression and anxiety do not eat well. They have reduced appetite and are unable to take part in physical activities within and outside school. When the learners fail to eat well, they expose themselves to more health issues such as malnutrition among others. The lack of physical activity makes the learners susceptible to poor physical development and other health problems such as obesity and diabetes. There are many scientific researches that have ascertained that lack of proper eating, physical exercises and presence of conditions such as diabetes and obesity reduces blood flow to the brain. When there is less blood flow into the brain, there is least development of the brain. Therefore, the learners living with depression and anxiety may show significant reduction in their brain development. The children find it difficult to compete with their colleagues in class activities. They are also inconvenienced by their varying moods and feelings towards class activities, peers and teachers. They always feel that they are at the losing end yet this might not be the case in reality. There is need for the learners to always be helped if they have to realize their normal development. However, most schools do not have counselors to identify learners with depression and anxiety. As a result, many learners continue to suffer the problems of depression and anxiety.
Depressed learners make teaching and learning boring and ineffective. The classrooms with many learners with depression and anxiety are often dull and unhealthy for individual growth of learners. The learners perceive their teachers as not responsive to their issues. On the other hand, the teachers find their learners are highly disrespectful and unable to do well in their studies. Therefore, their relationships within and outside class is characterized by gross misunderstanding of each other. The learners are unable to find in their teachers and colleagues support to come out of depression and anxiety. As a result, depression and anxiety among learners spoil the learning environment and hinder the levels of success teachers and learners attain. There is a high dependency on counselors to identify and help learners with depression and anxiety. However, the absence of enough number of counselors make it difficult for learning environments with learners having depression and anxiety to be made better. The outcome of this is that learners with these mood conditions will continue to post poor results and negatively affect the learning of other learners.
Anxiety among learners affects them for long before it can be identified and relevant help given to them. The reason for this is that it is difficult for teachers to know and understand all the experiences learners go through within and outside school. For instance, when parents fight each other, the children are often the recipients of all the pain (Baloglu, 2007). The children may experience stress and trauma. The problem is made worse by the fact that the problem learners go through are difficult to be established. When this is the case, the learners will not find immediate help to regain their normal life. The learners will find learning difficult to them as they are not sure of what will happen to them or their families.
Therefore, learners with anxiety will continue posting poor grades and showing other unexpected behaviors in school. For example, they can easily lose concentration and even fail to do assignments they are given. They also find it easy to avoid going to school. They find this the only way to escape what they perceive as unfair treatment in school (Bhujade, 2017). They find no one to confide in and thus the choice to avoid going to school (Millett-Thompson, 2017). The overall outcome of all these is that the learners perform poorly in and out school. They are victims of abuse especially because they can easily get offended or hurt by any careless statement made by colleagues. They often try to find help from teachers. However, when teachers do not understand them well, as is often the case, they end up getting frustrated. If they do not find relevant help, they may end up getti8ng inappropriate behaviors that are often hard to be eradicated. For instance, they may end up being aggressive, disrespectful and arrogant. The long-term effects of anxiety and depression on learners are highly negative and thus the need for them to be accorded immediate relevant help.
Educationists all around the world worry that depression and anxiety among young people is on the rise and continue to negatively impact their learning. The teachers have more work to do to see that learners with depression and anxiety are helped. Nevertheless, what teachers do have not been enough to provide the learners help. The reason for this is that helping learners with depression and anxiety requires a more holistic approach. The school stakeholders should all work together to help the learners. For instance, the available statistics on depression reveal that more than 15% of young people all around the world have symptoms of depression. The factors contributing to the high levels of depression among young people is the changing nature of parenting, social life and economic situations of families among other factors. For instance, learners from poor families find it difficult to fit into social groups within and outside schools. They are considered illegible to join because they come from poor backgrounds. The problem with this is that those close out from socializing or doing things with others end up thinking negatively about themselves. They hate that they come from poor backgrounds and cannot be with their friends. Those who are strong may find ways to do things themselves. However, they are indirectly affected by the negative treatment they get.
The high cases of depression and anxiety among learners is adding up the cost of education. For instance, many schools have counselors whose work is to see that learners are helped whenever they have problems. They help teachers to unravel and provide solutions to challenges learners go through while in school (Baloglu, 2007). There have been increased concerns among school stakeholders on the way learners are handled in school. Therefore, counselors are responsible for seeing that learners with unexpected behaviors are helped to get back to their normal life. However, the hiring of school counselors and other experts to help learners increase the cost of education. Moreover, the counselors have to be provided with resources to carry out their work. The result of this is that parents end up paying more for their children’s education. Due to this, there is an increase in the number of learners who do not finish school. The parents are unable to meet the high cost of education. The learners are thus forced to stop schooling at the early stages.
Depression and anxiety among learners make them to always have suicidal and other extreme thoughts. They imagine of themselves being targets of any insult or reprimand (Millett-Thompson, 2017). They do not see the school environment as beneficial to them. Therefore, they are very susceptible to being manipulated by ill-intentioned persons to do bad things (Bhujade, 2017). For example, they can be steered to fight colleagues or even use drugs. They can also fix teachers in awkward situations that end up putting the teacher’s work in danger. For example, the learners who fail to get to school or escape school may get into danger. When this happens, the teachers and school management get into problems. They are the ones who are considered at fault for the problems the learners can get. However, the real cause of the learner’s misbehavior is their unstable thoughts due to depression and anxiety. The learners do things they think will help them avoid the often strict routines.
The learners with depression and anxiety are often the victims of many cases of misconduct within and outside school. For instance, they fight others and fail in most of things they do in school. The learners can also use improper language when addressing others. They do this to let go of the burden they are bearing within themselves (Baloglu, 2007). The majority of schools around the world do not listen to learners to establish the reasons why they act or behave in the way they do. In fact, statistics shows that more than half of all the students considered indiscipline in the United States are only punished. There are no effective and reliable follow up activities meant to help the learners avoid the disorders that cause them to misbehave. Due to this, most schools unfairly handle learners with mood disorders such as anxiety and depression. The increased concern on how learners are treated in schools has seen many experts such as counselors employed to help children with different behavioral and mental disorders. The society is more concerned on how children are treated. However, there is more to be done to ensure that learners with depression and anxiety are holistically helped.
The cases of depression and anxiety among learners has reduced the pace to realize relevant, quality and appropriate education to members of society. There have been many suggestions by educationists on how education can be made relevant and helpful to people in society (Millett-Thompson, 2017). However, cases of depression and anxiety among learners have made it difficult for quality education to be realized. For instance, many teachers have not been educated on how to handle learners with different challenges. Moreover, the identification of background problems learners go through is a difficult thing to do. As a result, teachers are placed in awkward situations and most of them are unable to guarantee learners proper environments to learn (Bhujade, 2017). The focus of many educationists is that the education learners are subjected to should learning environments that enable each one of them to learn remain an objective to be met. There is need for all school stakeholders to work together and see that school environments are conducive for learning to all the learners.
Conclusion
Depression and anxiety among learners continue to hurt the quality of education all around the world. The learners who have depression or anxiety cannot concentrate in class, miss school often even without reason, are aggressive and thus hard to socialize well with colleagues and teachers and have negative thoughts that discourage them from learning. The teachers are often the people to carry the burden for poor performance and conduct among the learners (Baloglu, 2007). The learners with depression and anxiety continue to suffer because there are few schools that have set up proper learning environments for them. The majority of schools around the world have no proper ways in place to ensure that learners with depression and anxiety are helped. The outcome of this is that schools produce graduates that are not well molded to take up responsibilities in society. When this is not done, the quality of education will keep on coming down.
References
Baloglu, M., Abbasi, A. & Masten, W.G. (2007). A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Anxiety among College Students. College Student Journal, 41 (4), 977-984.
Bhujade, V.M. (2017). Depression, Anxiety and Academic Stress among College Students: A Brief Review. Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing, 9 (7), 748-751.
Millett-Thompson, R.A. (2017). Dealing with College Students’ Stress, Anxiety and Depression. Journal for Quality and Participation, 39 (4), 24-27.
