By: Vivian Zhi
With the ever-increasing awareness and focus on mental health, schools have been trying to find new ways to support their students. In Ontario, the high schools within the York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) have introduced “Wellness Wednesdays - along with a few mental health conferences and talks - in response to the call. Every Wellness Wednesday, which is the second Wednesday of each month, teachers are not allowed to teach or assign any tests or assignments. The intention is to give students a breather and allow them time to catch up on assignments and homework. This initiative has been in effect since December and was put temporarily on hold when schools closed down in March. Now that schools are reopening with preventative measures and alternate schedules that would include in-person attendance for at least 50% of instructional days, it’s worth examining this system for its competence in accomplishing its goals, especially during these unprecedented times.
At first glance, Wellness Wednesdays seem like a great idea. Students are often overwhelmed with work that they sacrifice sleep, exercise and time for hobbies. Giving students designated time during school may help them reduce the amount of time they spend on schoolwork at home, which frees up more time for students to do whatever they please. During the last couple of Wellness Wednesdays, a couple of school administration teams took the time to assemble mental health resources for students, including guided meditations, TED Talks and other activities related to mental health improvement, for their teachers to show during class. The YCDSB can be commended on their direct effort to reach out and offer assistance to high schoolers.
However, the actual effects of this initiative are contrary to what the YCDSB had hoped. When questioned on how she felt about Wellness Wednesdays, Eliza* - a rising junior from St. Robert Catholic High School - stated, “They were pretty much pointless since teachers give students extra work the day prior to that day. So it was just a work period rather than a day that focuses on improving students’ mental wellness.” And who can blame the teachers? They are already given a limited amount of time to teach the curriculum, and having days taken out of it puts more pressure on them to make the best use out of the work period students are given. At best, rearranging their teaching schedules is a relatively feasible nuisance. At worst, it can be a teacher’s scheduling nightmare.
So what effect does the rearranging of schedules have on the students? Since no tests or assignments can be due that day, some teachers feel obliged to assign graded work on the same day, usually on the Thursday or Friday after. Even though the Wednesday can be used as a study period, having multiple tests or assignments on the same day for the following weekdays can be extremely stressful for students. Some teachers are trying to coordinate with other teachers to make sure they don’t accidentally assign tests on the same day, but it’s not a fool-proof plan.
Another issue is that some students treat this day as a free period to do things other than working. So you may ask, why bother showing up at all? Technically, students are not allowed to skip school that day on the account that it’s Wellness Wednesday, but that doesn't stop them from doing so. If you take a glance in a classroom on a Wellness Wednesday, chances are, you will see a reduced number of students.
If Wellness Wednesdays aren’t improving mental health as the YCDSB had hoped, then what happens now? In my opinion, further consultation with students on their needs is needed. The average student doesn’t have much of a say in this issue, which is problematic as it involves them directly. Yes, there are school board trustees, but they cannot possibly know or reflect every single high school student’s opinion. Some students have called for onsite therapists and trained mental health professionals due to their school counsellors being too busy handling the academic journey of each student. Others say that if they need a dedicated day to catch up on work, maybe the problem is that schools are assigning too much work. These opinions don’t get heard if the school board doesn’t open up the conversation and make it accessible and easy for students to leave their input. Each student deserves to be treated as a stakeholder in this issue.
Melanie*, a student from St. Augustine Catholic High School, is ambivalent about this issue. “Well for me, I didn’t really feel too different because I was already ‘well,’ but it was still nice for the teacher to take time out of class to think about our mental health.” While the YCDSB’s intentions are well-meaning, this does not mean that Wellness Wednesdays should be the final solution for improving students’ mental health. It remains unclear whether Wellness Wednesdays will even be in place when students return to school in September, as teachers may want or need more time to teach. Perhaps this is a good thing, as it will give more time for the YCDSB to reflect upon the effectiveness of Wellness Wednesdays and decide whether they need to change a few aspects of the system or scrap it altogether. Whatever they choose to do, I hope they will take student input into consideration.
*Names changed to protect anonymity. Quotes edited for clarification.