Choice of school or college for our children is always a subject of deep thought and plenty of discussion. Usually, the key drivers for this decision are a good academic reputation of the institution being discussed, followed closely by plenty of extracurricular activities, such as sports, dramatics, and music, among others. Do we want our children to be happy and content where they study? Of course, we do.
How much time do we spend to find out if the choice made is the “right place” keeping this parameter in mind? Hardly any. Mainly because we have no pointers to judge, and also because it is such a hard-to-define attribute! So this one important element of a happy school or college life is often left to chance.
The World Health Organization refers to mental health as “a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.” Entry into a school or college marks a transition point for young people. Through this transition, students face several challenges. They need to learn to take decisions on their own, and adjust to the academic demands of their campus. These demands are often high, sometimes excessive, and in many instances, not much structure is provided to the student.
Naturally, they also meet many new people and adjust to these new relationships. On occasion, the place of study is far from home, and students are expected to acclimatize themselves, sometimes for the very first time, to the challenges posed by this shift to a new and unfamiliar environment. All these challenges have the potential to affect the mental health and well-being of students. Reading the news every day gives us insights into the number of times students, both in school and college, face a gamut of common psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety, and stress. Pubertal changes, and misuse or overuse of social media ensure that this stress increases exponentially throughout adolescence.
Over the years we have seen a marked increase in both, the severity of mental health issues as well as help-seeking behaviours on educational campuses. On the other hand, the eagerness with which students returned to their campuses post-pandemic shows how much they missed their life on campus, among their peers and in face-to-face contact with their teachers and mentors.
Ideal settings for mental health promotion
The presence of a large number of students on campuses provides a unique opportunity for mental health providers since this single integrated setting encompasses not only academic activities but also social interaction, professional skill training and health and support services should they be required. There have been several attempts to “right the wrong” by offering student counselling on campus, running suicide prevention
programs, and arranging talks and workshops to augment life skills, time management, anger management and techniques for handling depression and anxiety. However, these efforts appear to be looking at a half-empty glass. They seem to try and identify what is wrong or missing and ensure that corrective action is taken.
In contrast, we could look at the “glass half full,” the natural joy with which youngsters approach life, the bonhomie that is created as friends connect at emotional levels and share their joys and sorrows. Can we not have “emotion-friendly” campuses that understand the feelings that run through students’ minds, and teach them to express and share these feelings, to make life on campus more joyful and vibrant, more empathic and sensitive? What we need to do, in other words, is to introduce a vocabulary of emotions on campuses that have become too cerebral.
Such an effort would require involvement not only of the students on campus, but all stakeholders. It will have to percolate through to the management, the faculty, the non- teaching support and administrative staff as well as the parents, so that all together can create a vibe of positivity on campus that benefits the young people studying there. The current overemphasis on marks and successful negotiation of examinations needs to be counterbalanced with this deep understanding that emotional and social perspectives of campus life are of as much, if not greater importance than academic successes.
Read More: Suicide Through the Eyes of a College Student
A good Indian language name for “emotion-friendly” campuses would be Pradnya Parisar. In Maharashtra, in collaboration with the Maharashtra State Faculty Development Academy, we at the Institute for Psychological Health have rolled out a project called Pradnya Parisar Prakalp which has just entered its second year. What is Pradnya? A Sanskrit word that is commonly used in Sanskrit-based languages like Hindi and Marathi? Essentially Pradnya means wisdom, although it is often interpreted as cleverness or intelligence.
Here one could invoke the famous psychologist Robert Sternberg, who distinguished between Intelligence, Cleverness and Wisdom. In my Marathi book, “Aaple Mool Hushaar Aahe Ka?” I have invoked the same idea in Marathi. I call Intelligence Hushaari. A ‘hushaar” student is one who scores well in exams, is a good performer in school and college, wins all the prizes for brilliance.
Unfortunately, that is the kind of student out school system has been trying to turn out, placing tremendous pressure of competition and passing v/s failure on the young minds. A Clever person is somebody who is “Chatur,” someone who is street smart, who knows how to get what they want by handling any situation just right. So if a “hushaar” child is a topper in class, a Mensa member, a “Chatur” person is a Birbal. But the true colours of intelligence shine through in Wisdom which we can call “Shahaanpan”.
Well being, resilience, empathy
The process of creating Emotion Friendly campuses will ensure happier, more resilient and coping stakeholders, ranging from students to teachers, non teaching staff, parents and campus management. Without interrupting ongoing activities typical of college and University campuses, such as Annual Days, Sports, Rose days and College Fests, we can help infuse every activity with a strong message of Emotional well-being, Resilience and
Empathic understanding. Learning as a process should be enjoyable, and not stressful.
Learning can happen across different domains, not just book knowledge, and can be achieved through a bouquet of activities other than classroom teaching and examinations; that will be the message that percolates as campuses grow mentally healthy, emotionally strong and self-reliant, creating peer buddy systems to help one another, drawing on each others’ strengths.
Naturally, there is bound to be a “ripple effect.” Once one sees one’s neighbouring institute flourishing and becoming more productive, popular and resilient in times of crises, each of us would want to replicate similar processes on our own campus as well! This is the Wisdom that can be spread across a state, and in due course, across the country, and perhaps the world. Campus mental health is already a thriving concept on many international campuses and perhaps this Pradnya Parisar Prakalp, once it is completed, documented and shared, will help create a blueprint and ensure happier student life.
Wisdom is the application of tacit knowledge toward the achievement of a common good. In Wisdom are subsumed the dual concepts of Intelligence or IQ and Emotional Intelligence or EQ. Emotional Intelligence is a person’s ability to process emotional information and use it to navigate social environments. WICS is an acronym of Wisdom, Intelligence and Creativity Synthesized.
As Einstein famously said, “Creativity is Intelligence having fun.”
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