Department of Education offers courses on mental health

Waynesburg University’s Department of Education has added mental health topics to the curriculum as a way to help support future teachers and to assist them in avoiding teacher burnout.

Dr. Kelley Solomon, assistant professor of education recently shared some of the advancements and additions in the program in order to tackle the growing concern of mental health in education.

“I’ve taught at Waynesburg University for eight years,” Solomon said, “and during that time developed a course [ECE 409] for the early childhood program that is entitled Health Methods, Pre-K to 4. As part of that course, we discuss mental health.”

Last semester, Solomon taught mainly in the secondary and middle program. In her secondary education psychology class, one of her students approached her relating to mental health, specifically teachers being burned out.   

“She was concerned as a future teacher, about her own well-being with regards to mental health and teaching the students,” she said. “That’s what sparked this unit.”

After that conversation, Solomon said, the education department did not take long to implement change and begin to focus on alarming statistics. 

A 2017 Educator Quality of Life Survey, results revealed;

“Nearly two-thirds, or 61 percent, of educators find work ‘always’ or ‘often’ stressful, twice the rate of other workers.” 

Additionally, the survey concluded that “27 percent of educators said they have been threatened, bullied or harassed, versus 7 percent of employed adults in the general population.”  With statistics such as these, it has been a drastic, yet meaningful change for the university to stress the importance of a healthy work-life balance and ways to keep mental health in check as a way to combat statistics.

Since the Department of Education started teaching this new curriculum, they have shared different techniques and suggested strategies to the students to do self-care and be vigilant their mental health.  For Solomon, this is something that not just education majors but also something that most college students could and should learn.

“This semester I am having the students build a self-care plan, and by doing this, it is my hope that they will develop lifelong self-care habits to support and sustain them on their journey as future teachers,” she said.

Solomon said that self-care habits don’t come as easy as self-care plans. 

[Students] just have to be aware because stress can have an impact on your performance in a classroom,” Solomon said. If your stressors become great and as a teacher, you are not managing and dealing with all of these issues, it could be detrimental to the students and you.”

To help the students start their self-care journey, Solomon had them pick an area of self-care they would like to improve, such as physical, mental, emotional, financial and more. Once the students picked one of the specialty areas, they were placed in support groups that meet every few weeks. Within these groups, students wrote letters to themselves to read once they reached a milestone in their self-care plans or for a time they may be struggling to achieve their goal.

“When they reach milestones throughout their journey this semester, whatever their goals are, they are going to open up the note for themselves and inside they were asked to write something positive,” she said. “These notes will remind them that they are making process. They also made one for a time that they are struggling.”

Along with listening to her students and adding mental health into her course as a way to maintain a healthy lifestyle as they begin their career, Solomon does something else as a gentle and constant reminder.  Above all else, Solomon wants to remind the students of Waynesburg

and the staff to “always remember their passion and their purpose.”

“Let this be a lesson to not just the education majors but to all students preparing for their future,” Solomon said. “Be thinking about ways to maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle, develop a self-care plan to use as a way to reduce stress, and know that there are resources to support you at all times when in need.”