DailyMail: Meditation sessions, long walks between classes and no homework? It sounds like most children’s dream education. But it could become a reality at a top independent school trying to combat teenage mental illness. Hoping to ward off early signs of depression and anxiety, Cheltenham Ladies’ College is making their students’ wellbeing as important as their grades.
The school’s principal, Eve Jardine-Young, told The Times she was even considering abolishing homework in a bid to improve her students’ welfare. ‘What we’ve been reflecting on a lot in the last few years are the big national trends in the worsening states of adolescent mental health,’ she said.
‘We’ve created this epidemic of anxiety for ourselves as a society, and if our obligation as educators is to try to the best of our ability to set young people up as best we can, then to ignore this whole area or to trivialise it is really irresponsible.’ From September, students at the 162-year-old school will go to weekly meditation classes and have twice as long to wander between classes. It is also considering university-style ‘fliplearning’, where pupils read up on a subject before the lesson.
Meanwhile, an independent school in Perthshire, Morrison’s Academy, has banned cricket because of wet weather and overly ‘complicated’ rules. It said the pressures of exams were also a factor.
Oh the poor babies…they need twice as long to wander between classes? Guess that will give them twice as long to text and get on Facebook, Vine, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Candy Crush, etc.
DCG