Paper Example on Emotional Health of High School Students

Introduction

Learning processes are extremely complex because it involves the learning of multiple elements to comprehend rules and principles, understand relationships among various entities and solve problems. Despite these complexities, the prevailing educational model, in general, tends to ignore the emotional aspects of students and the significant role it plays in the overall growth and development of students. However, because of the educational revolution (that encourages working with emotions in the classroom) generated from the emergence of constructivism and the impact of the theory of multiple intelligences, a new debate has opened in pedagogy that includes the role of emotions as one of the fundamental aspects to be considered in the integral education of the student. A classroom where interpersonal relationships are based on respect, coexistence, and tolerance will allow the learner to feel free to participate and enriched with the experiences that take place in it.

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Establishing the classroom explained above is not possible if an interdisciplinary work is not carried out among professionals of education, social sciences and health, especially the area of emotional and mental health, in which there is a lack of studies in the subject. The inability of disciplinarians to address this problem from the viewpoint of their respective disciplines has provided a reason for the lack of emotional health in schools to be addressed from an interdisciplinary point of view. There is an increased need to incorporate different disciplines to address both the root of the problem and its consequences. This paper will take an interdisciplinary approach to the problem of lack of emotional health of students, drawing on disciplinary insights from health professionals, paraprofessionals, teachers and community members who work together to provide social and emotional wellbeing care for students. This essay will also present a framework of psychopedagogical orientation for the justification of emotional education for students.

Emotional Pressure for Students

The school is a pot of emotional pressure for children. In each minute of class that passes, children constantly face diverse academic and social pressures. These emotions range from feeling angry, upset, ridiculed, proud, among others, and affect learning because they influence communication, attention and memory, and everything they need to handle them. Angry people act angry, which has consequences, especially negative, for learning (Baumeister & Bushman, 68). Establishing a healthy classroom should be our premise. An emotionally balanced classroom, where both the teacher and the participant demonstrate good management of their emotions, would be a fertile ground for guaranteeing harmonious relationships.

Defining what emotions are is extremely difficult and complicated since they are phenomena of multi-causal origin. Emotions are associated with affective reactions of sudden onset, of great intensity, of transitory nature and accompanied by ostentatious somatic changes, which are always presented in response to an emergency or stimuli of a surprising nature or great intensity (Cornick, Nylund-Gibson, & Furlong, 57). Emotions are linked to biological needs and under the control of subcortical formations, which makes them appear in different ways and fulfill certain functions generating different consequences. When a harmonious atmosphere is achieved within the classroom, positive emotions flow excessively, positive thoughts are born, emotional stability is established, optimism fills the corners, flexibility and relaxation emerge, extraversion opaque to the introversion, the approach combats the social and emotional isolation, the spiritual solvency is reborn and with it, a happy, happy and full being (Reinhard, 27).

The basic positive emotions, such as love and joy, should be encouraged in the classroom because they lead the student to feel affinity and kindness for others. This feeling is transformed into selfless and charitable love. Through it, devotion, dedication, kindness, and trust are promoted. Love leads to joy and this to happiness and relief. Delight, happiness, and fun emanate, and consequently gratification, pride and satisfaction are perceived (Lenzi et al. 53). The behaviors are the product of the decisions made by the individual.

This means that emotions are events or phenomena of a biological and cognitive nature that make sense in social terms. They can be classified as positive when they are accompanied by pleasurable feelings and mean that the situation is beneficial, as are happiness and love. Emotions are classified as harmful when they are accompanied by unpleasant feelings and the situation is perceived as a threat, among which are fear, anxiety, anger, hostility, sadness, disgust, or neutrals when they are not accompanied by any feeling, among which is hope and surprise (Dennis, Hong, & Solomon, 469). Emotions are also classified according to the response offered by the subject as high or low energy. Finally, it is important to note that it is possible that different emotions are manifested at the same time. Emotions are inherent to our being from before birth (Shayla, 2017). They reveal who we are and how we feel. They are affected by what surrounds us, and therefore they are part of an adaptation process (Dowdy et al. 2014, pg. 13). Now, the well-being of each being is closely linked to their emotions. Many studies reveal that the emotional imbalance triggers innumerable types of suffering, precisely because of that adaptive function of the organism to what surrounds it. For this reason, since emotions are affective states, they indicate internal changes related to our longings and queries, but also to our needs. Fredrickson (2001, pg. 222), who has researched for decades on the linkage between emotions and suffering, states that emotions can cause mental as well as physical illness and thus negatively affect the performance of a student.

In such a way that emotions are basic and inseparable from being and feeling. They are immersed in any daily activity that the human being executes; from the earliest stages of their formation to the stage of old age. Emotions are the sign that we exist and that our family, work or academic environment affects this existence positively or negatively. Different emotions are manifested at the same time, depending on the stage of development where we are, that is, childhood, adolescence, youth, adulthood or senescence (Dowdy et al. 2015, pg. 44). People are born with temperaments neither pleasant nor unpleasant. The ability of a child to face situations is not innate; is adaptive or trainable, at least in theory. Specific training for children in socio-emotional skills can establish neurological pathways that make children less vulnerable to anxiety and allow them to recover more quickly from unhappy experiences. Training in social-emotional skills can make children more intelligent through the development of a part of the brain (prefrontal cortex) that is responsible for important academic skills such as impulse control, abstract reasoning, long-term planning term and working memory (Fernandez & Kroner, 1170).

This holistic view of health applies to all aspects of human life, and cannot be excluded from the educational level. In classrooms, we must watch to maintain a healthy and full classroom in emotional balance. Both teachers and students must try to conserve equanimity in the learning environments and with that build a human being full of positive thoughts and filled with an inner peace that will improve the management of stress and prepare us to face moments of adversity, both in the classroom and in daily life. Creating an optimal atmosphere for learning contributes to the commitment to achieve mutual goals and to a greater desire to learn and discover knowledge (Furlong et al. 2013, pg. 757).

There are different opinions regarding what emotions are, even some of the specialists use the terms emotion and affect interchangeably. In this essay, emotions are considered to refer to temporal states that include mood and general disposition, as specific responses to specific events, usually of short duration and relatively intense; while feelings and moods are less intense and unlike emotions can last longer (Ibrahim, Kelly, Adams, & Glazebrook, 398). Several studies agree that positive emotional health influences the development of personal characteristics and competencies useful to face daily life challenges and overcome adversity in school and beyond, which enhances mental health and psychological resilience. Positive emotional health is important for intellectual processes such as reasoning, problem-solving, attention, alertness, memory and information processing, as well as its contribution to improving learning achievements.

Emotional Health of High School Students

Emotions in education are one of the most critical tasks pending in our society, practically until the nineties there is no significant progress in their study. Emotional illiteracy is the inability of a person to recognize, understand, and respond to emotions in others and ourselves. Ito et al. (2015, pg. 22) point out that some of the high costs of emotional illiteracy include an increase in crime rates, violence, arrests, use of firearms, suicides, citizen insecurity, and depression, anxiety, stress, eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse. It is therefore essential to come up with strategies for prevention and emotional literacy necessary through the educational system.

The main aims of emotional education include (Kim et al. 2014, pg. 133) having better knowledge of one's emotions and to be able to identify the emotions that others are going through. It also helps in controlling and managing the emotions one is going through. Ensuring that negative emotions do not negatively influence a person and being able to generate positive emotions. It also helps to have better and higher emotional competence, enhance self-motivation and have a positive attitude towards life.

From the aims mentioned above, other more specific objectives derive, depending on the context of intervention (Koyama et al. 443) include developing the ability to control stress, anxiety and depressive states and becoming aware of the factors that induce subjective well-being. Emotional education enhances the ability of the human being to be happy, develops a sense of humor and the capacity to delay immediate rewards in favor of others of a higher level but the long-term and develop a resistance to frustration.

By extension, the effects of emotional education would lead to an increase in social skills and satisfactory interpersonal relationships. It will help in decreasing self-destructive thoughts, improving self-esteem and decreasing the rate of violence and aggression. It also decreases sadness and depressive symptomatology, lowers anxiety, stress, and in disorders related to food. These objectives and their consequences, without arguments of any kind, could be enough to justify the presence of emotional education in any sector.

Justification and Need for Emotional Education

Within the framework of psychopedagogical orientation, four broad areas can be distinguished into (Lenzi et al. 53): Professional orientation, the orientation of the teaching learning processes the attention to diversity and lastly the orientation for prevention and development. The current essay will focus on this last area, which includes most aspects of the personality development of the individual. Characteristic examples of this area are social skills, assertive training, self-control, self-esteem, life skills, all of which are components of what are referred to as emotional education. Some of the most significant reasons for the justificati...