How Confidence, Self-Esteem, and Mental Health Improve Through Meaningful Learning
With an increasingly complicated social experience, much attention is being paid to adolescent mental health. But beyond the conventional idea of mental health lies a more nuanced consideration of psychological development and well-being. It is this gray area that I am focused on.
I believe that the development of the individual is paramount—not only to progress and achievement, but also to psychological health and overall well-being. Furthermore, I believe that learning can directly contribute to improvement in all of these areas.
The process of learning is crucial and affects a student’s development in areas including self-image, confidence and self-belief, emotional stability, intellectual curiosity, self-esteem, and social-emotional intelligence.
It is this perspective that informs the way I work with students. Whether coaching, advising, or teaching, this view always sits front and center.
The ups and downs of a school year are more dynamic than ever before. The highs are higher, and the lows are lower. The external noise is exponentially louder, while the internal pressure is greater and competition fiercer. Students are being told who they are—and often that they are not good enough—while they are still in the process of developing their sense of self. It is a tremendous amount of weight to manage.
My mission is to help navigate these turbulent waters. Helping students shut out the external noise while focusing on who they are, as well as finding a system and balance that works for them, is of the utmost importance.
While I do not instruct students to remove themselves from social media, I help them navigate its effects by developing a perspective of the world that is broader, more historical, and more human than the fast-paced, manufactured clips of reality they see on a daily basis. One way to do this is through learning.
It may seem obvious, but learning ought to be about much more than merely memorizing facts and information. Learning is about using context to understand who we are, the world we inhabit, and the complex ideas that have shaped humanity. It should be about building social and moral character. Learning has been watered down to almost meaningless information that has no readily identifiable connection to the student, and it is being taught in an increasingly pedantic and distant way.
At Chestnut State, our teachers work with students in a way that connects learning to their psychological and social development. They do this by inserting the student into their own learning. Students are asked to participate in discourse with their teachers to learn not only more about the subject, but also about themselves. Every subject illuminates some part of the human condition.
Understanding how those subjects, in turn, relate to students as individuals increases not only learning and engagement, but also mental well-being, as it exercises parts of the mind concerned with perspective, reflection, and introspection.
The classical liberal arts tradition was built around this philosophy: learning broadly in order to be more fully engaged with the world, to develop a deeper understanding of human history, to become educated in matters of art, music, and poetry, and to build a strong moral and ethical compass.
We seek to bring this tradition—once central to universities in the United States—to K–12 students. So far, the results have been impressive. Students demonstrate thoughtfulness, curiosity, and imagination. By participating in a different dynamic with their teachers—one built around dialogue—they demonstrate impressive intellectual development. But they also demonstrate psychological and emotional growth.
At the end of the day, their learning is not simply about academics. It is about themselves. And for that, they are better for it.
