Students are required to attend 180 days of school a year, with weekends and holidays being their only rest days. However, weekends can be full of homework or studying; therefore, most of the time, they’re not even as relaxing as described. After weeks of learning new information, students should be allowed to take mental health days to rest their minds.
Throughout the school year, students get up early in the morning and head to school. For seven hours, they sit in a classroom and try to retain information from up to seven different classes. It can become overwhelming as assignments and tests start to pile up. To help balance the overwhelming weight of school expectations, students should take a mental health day at least once a quarter. Angela Theisen, a psychologist and licensed clinical social worker, defines a mental health day as “a limited time away from your usual responsibilities with the intention of recharging and rejuvenating your mental health.” When students take a mental health day, it should be a day where they relax and take time off. It should be a day where students explore the outside and breathe in fresh air. It shouldn’t be a day when students sit in their beds all day.
A mental health day can be a day for students to take a break from their anxiety and other mental health issues. According to Compass Health Center, a mental health provider, “Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health conditions seen in teenagers, impacting an estimated 31.9% of teens.” It is important for students to take a break when anxiety becomes overwhelming. Not giving your mind a chance to rest can lead to burnout and an extreme amount of stress. A mental health day would help students to prevent burnout and decrease the amount of anxiety they feel, along with other mental health issues they could be experiencing.
Stress can impact students’ memory, which is one of the reasons mental health days are important for students to take. Talkspace, an online mental health platform, stated, “According to the American Psychological Association (APA), stress affects the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which is part of the brain responsible for high-level thinking.” When students’ stress levels increase, participating in “critical thinking activities” or taking in information presented can become demanding. Stress can be harmful to a student’s learning. It can push students to feel helpless and overwhelmed. Students need to take a mental health day to alleviate the amount of stress from experiences at school, work, or even extracurricular activities.
Some people might argue that mental health days take away from a student’s time to learn, which would cause them to fall behind on work. However, a mental health day would count as an excused absence, meaning students can still make up any work they miss without repercussions after they return from their break. Currently, there are 12 states in the U.S. that allow students to take time away from school, including California, Illinois, and Maine.
Schools should allow mental health days because it allows students to take a break, refresh their minds, and prevent burnout. Parents and schools should encourage students to take a break from school when it becomes too much. Schools need to recognize the signs of exhaustion, depression, and burnout and allow students to rest. With all the responsibilities students have, it is important to put mental health first, before it gets worse. Take a breather, relax, and prioritize yourself. It’s okay to feel like the weight of school is too heavy. Consider a mental health day to help refresh your mind and give the fresh start needed to carry on.
