Colman Noctor: How do we care for students who struggle with our education system?
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A secondary school student attended me for psychotherapy for seven years. She was a worrier as a young child, but this escalated when she reached secondary school. A people-pleaser, she over-extended herself at the start of secondary school, trying to be all things to all people. Her attempts to be an A-grade student, a popular peer and a participant in numerous extra-curricular activities came at a cost. After her first year of secondary school, she hit a wall. Feeling overwhelmed, she regained some
This condition was so severe that she was admitted to hospital, where we first met.
She left the hospital to be catapulted into more pressure as it was Junior Cert year. Over the next 12 months, she relapsed and was hospitalised again. This time her mood was worryingly low, and her anxiety was higher than before. She struggled to return to school. Each time she tried, the stress and pressure would become too much and she would become exhausted or overwhelmed and unable to continue. She had to be home-schooled and received most of her senior cycle education in this way. With enormous effort and support from her family, she got through the Leaving Cert, sitting some exams and getting predicted grades for others. This time last year, I saw her hobble over the line and finally complete her school journey. Over the following months, I didn’t hear from her and assumed she needed a break from therapy.
Last week she contacted me out of the blue to request a Zoom session. I feared the worst when I saw her email, thinking she may have relapsed again. To my surprise, when she joined the Zoom call, a bright and chirpy young woman greeted me. She seemed to have grown up a lot in the nine months since I had last seen her. She had an unfamiliar smile, and she was looking directly at me, which was unusual for her. She wanted to tell me how well she was doing and was reconnecting to ensure she could keep her momentum.
She loves her college course, which has leanings toward the creative arts. She also told me she had met a group of like-minded students who had become great friends. She is now in a romantic relationship and has a part-time job. It was the first time I remember becoming teary-eyed and gulpy in a session. My professional composure left me momentarily as I recalled the struggles this girl had endured over the last seven years, and I told her how proud I was of what she had achieved.
Some might suggest that the improvements were a result of the natural maturing process, but despite significant maturity milestones that occurred between the age of 14 and 18 years old, no psychological improvement of note was observed during our sessions. However, the jump in progress from 18 to 19 years, after she left school, was remarkable. The environment was the key to her recovery.
She is one of the many young people who didn’t suit the school system. The difference the college environment made to her relationship with the world and herself is monumental. She found something she was interested in, felt passionate about and was good at. She now had a community of people who believed in her and had finally found somewhere she felt she belonged.
The longer I work as a child and adolescent psychotherapist, the more I realise how narrow our education system is in Ireland. It is impossible to draw a ‘cause and effect relationship’ between an education system and a mental health crisis, but there is undoubtedly a connection between them. When the sole goal of secondary school is the student’s performance in the Leaving Cert exam, it follows that there will be many young people this model will not suit.
I have often said to distressed young people, ‘this is really hard now, but you will thrive in adulthood’. This is easy to say but the challenge is trying to get the young person to believe in your prediction and convince them to stay alive to allow this possibility to occur.
The archaic nature of studying three compulsory subjects (English, Irish and maths) with a language and a science choice being ‘strongly recommended’, leaves the student with a realistic option of two other subjects. Also, they are expected to study seven subjects. Our education system will suit certain young people, but not others, who have few viable alternatives. What if we had a model like Britain where young people could choose a small number of subjects to study for the Leaving Cert?
I was on several TV and radio programmes last week highlighting the need for Leaving Cert reform. Politicians on these panels said this is ‘in motion’, but it looks more like tinkering around the edges rather than a concerted effort for change. Calls for Leaving Cert reform are not new and successive governments have done nothing to address it. But what if a re-examination of the entire senior cycle is needed, rather than just the Leaving Cert Exam process? Is there scope for more fundamental change?
Parents who have a deeply unhappy or anxious teenager, perhaps linked with mental health services and struggling with life, must stay strong and not lose hope. Things can and will change. We are often told that our school days are the happiest of our lives, but this is a view of the majority who thrived in that environment.
We are doing little to improve young people's mental health by cramming an hour of well-being into an over-stretched curriculum that is narrowly designed and discriminates against those with disabilities. We have to create more avenues of progression that cater for young people’s range of strengths. Also, we need to value those who are not cut out for conventional education and provide options for them. I am not an educationalist, so I am open to evidence that the current system is the best educational option. But as a mental health expert, I believe we have to consider the psychological and emotional costs too.
Despite the challenges that secondary school can pose, I hope parents can take some solace in the story of the brave young student who I worked with for years. She endured anxiety beyond anything most of us could imagine, but she turned her life around with perseverance and a change of circumstances. There are no medals or prizes for what she has achieved, but what she has managed to do exceeds anything that could be achieved on a sports field or an exam hall. For that reason, I hope she is in a place to feel something beyond her for so long: pride.
- Dr Colman Noctor is a child psychotherapist
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