Mental Health
By: Anvi Bhate, Alia Bonanno, David Chen, Selim Kim, Ellie Ana Sperantsas
Exonians—students, faculty and staff members alike—have felt unprecedented levels of stress and low mental wellbeing in recent weeks due to a variety of factors, among them the compressed schedule, the demanding workload amidst the tolls of the pandemic and the constant news of national violence and injustice. The Exonian spoke with many students and faculty members across the week to compile community opinions on the current state of mental health at the Academy.
Many Academy instructors have told The Exonian that the limitations of pandemic life at the Academy have been burdening their mental health. An anonymous History Instructor told The Exonian that “being trapped in our space here at PEA… having to police COVID guidelines, few support networks outside of my department, constantly changing expectations, being cut out of communication so it is very difficult to know what is going on, the faculty body not being consulted on changes such as the policy of bringing students downtown (which is a wonderful idea but is being implemented in such a way that it places extra pressures on primarily newer and younger dorm faculty),” all contributed to their stress levels.
The anonymous History instructor added that they felt there was not enough support for faculty from the Academy. “When concerns were raised by faculty about mental health and the toll that the year would take on us in the fall, we were told to take a bath,” they said.
Constant schedule changes intended to address feelings of stress have inadvertently led to more confusion. “I am concerned that the constant changes are exacerbating our mental health problems; hopefully we have settled on a schedule and can work from here but stability is crucial,” the instructor said.
A remedy to this, the instructor said, would be “more moments for joy—finding ways in the classroom, on the athletics fields, in the music and dance spaces to just have fun. And then listening to students. I wish I had a good solution but it is tough… the students have been perhaps the most important resource, without the classroom, music spaces, dorm, halls, and athletics field interactions with students, I do not think I would be functioning. But that creates its own problem—if my mental health is reliant on students and their mental health is reliant on me, that feedback loop is really precarious.”
Many students attributed their stress to the large amounts of homework assigned in each class and extracurricular commitments.
Upper Lekha Masoudi criticized the lack of action taken by Academy faculty members to decrease students’ workload. “The thing with my mental health is it is really predicated on how many assignments I have and how I'm doing in all my classes. Because you’re given so many assessments, it’s really hard to do well… Your mind is being pulled in so many directions,” Masoudi said. “I think that teachers are aware of it, but I think some of them just don't really feel obligated to do anything about [our mental health]. It should be more of a priority.”
Upper Jose Vivanco pointed to being on campus for so long as an additional source of stress. “I’m tired. For me, there’s not a specific factor but rather the fact that we’ve been on campus for 10 weeks. We haven’t really had any actual restful breaks, because any breaks we were given were too short to be relaxing,” Vivanco said. “The whole idea of being on campus for 16 weeks straight stresses me out. It feels like we’ve been on campus for a lot longer now, and I almost feel like I’m counting down the days until the end of the term.”
Upper Josephine Elting believed the Academy’s transition to in-person instruction contributed to students’ stress. “[The Academy] hasn't recognized the fact that we got used to virtual learning and that we are having to be back in person. It is an adjustment and it's not something we can get back into, like, immediately,” Elting said.
Lower Lara Muyombwe added, “I just feel homesick and really stressed out with the amount of time that assignments take me. I think it's just like having to do classes every single day and then having nothing to do on the weekends. There's nothing to break the monotony of school.”
Prep Quinn Coaxum added that balancing extracurriculars and overlapping major assignments are a main cause of stress. “Mostly it’s homework but having to go to orchestra late in the day doesn’t help much either. Also, many of my classes assign major assessments on the same day/week which causes extra stress,” Coaxum said.
Prep David Goodall felt that homework load was not a major stressor, but rather the competitive culture within students at the Academy. “My workload has not been a major stressor for me because I’ve found it manageable. I think it's the mindset that is being put upon students, whether unknowingly or not, that is the bigger problem,” Goodall said. “The Academy is very competitive, and I'm not even sure if it is aware of the extent of competition. It’s to the point where people are even trying to be like some of their closest friends to get higher grades or take harder classes. That just leads to a negative environment that causes stress.”
Senior Lucas McEachern also felt that students’ adjustments to in-person Exeter played a role in general wellbeing. “I think that the transition has been hard for most students is because there are basic human needs that need to be met in order for them to perform optimally, whether that's in the classroom, in sports, or just life in general,” McEachern said. “I think of sleep, I think of human connection, and time spent with people that we want to be around, and we aren’t getting that.”
McEachern continued, emphasizing the importance of preserving the length of sports blocks in the schedule. “I know [the Academy] cut the sports times short, and I don't know what the logic behind that was because the sports are not really what's stressing kids out,” he said. “I think that sports are outlets for some kids…, and the school aspect of our days need to be a little less rigorous.”
Some students are finding it difficult to cope with stress brought by factors beyond the Academy. “What constitutes most of my stress right now isn't what's going on inside the Exeter bubble, but instead what's going on outside. The pandemic is still at large; violence, police brutality, and mass shootings have sadly become somewhat of a norm,” senior Isabel Carden said. “On top of this, there was a bereavement recently in my family that I've had to cope with while at school. There's no time to grieve or even sit with myself here. To remain attentive, alert, and present for my classes seems to be getting harder and harder with no respite.”
Upper Mali Rauch has found the return to port-pandemic academic rigor especially challenging to balance due to a high-stress home life. “My life has always had stress; I have divorced parents who both work as public school teachers. Their salaries have always been stretched thin covering my three siblings and I. COVID has only heightened this financial stress,” Rauch said.
“The nature of my family means that things are very hectic for me at home. At school, Exeter’s heavy workload has returned. I am able to manage this most days, but I get especially stressed when large projects like history papers are added to the list of to-dos,” Rauch continued. “The extreme limits to socialization under the pandemic have been really difficult to feel fully relaxed or recharged after time with friends on weekends or in the evenings.”
Masoudi noted that there was a lack of consideration for students’ wellbeing when assigning large amounts of homework. “In a sense, the schedule adjusting is good, but I still don't really feel that supported,” Masoudi said. “I don't really think that the administration is stopping to think of how giving all this work is actually helping students learn versus just making it seem more difficult for the sake of looking prestigious.”
Upper Grace Ding echoed similar thoughts on the Academy’s lack of concrete action. “You know, everyone is really, really overwhelmed by how packed their schedule is every day. I feel like the administration is acknowledging the burdens on our mental health, but they're not taking action,” Ding said.
Elting added that the administration’s recent efforts have not truly taken into account students’ needs. “A lot of times I feel like the things that the Academy puts money into are things that look good to people outside of the Academy and not necessarily things that the students truly want,” Elting said. “I think they should lighten the coursework a little bit. It's a lot. Maybe limiting the teachers to one major assignment every other week because more than that is honestly just absurd.”
Many students do not consider the no-class Wednesday every other week as a day of relaxation. “Every other Wednesday off is good, but at the same time, teachers are loading up on Tuesday night and they're loading up on Thursday because they know that we'll have free time on Wednesday. So that Wednesday isn't really free time at the end of the day,” McEachern said.
Senior Christina Xiao agreed, suggesting that the Academy adopt last winter’s schedule. “Honestly, I’d rather not have every other Wednesday off, since we could move 3-4 classes as half days like the old pre-COVID schedule, which would give us less classes per day (not as many 5 class days!). On those Wednesdays off, I have dance for a large portion of the day, so it doesn’t actually feel like time off. This is not how I expected my senior spring to be like!”
Ding suggests that in addition to the Wednesdays off, the Academy should bring back Principal’s Day.”When Principal Rawson said that there wouldn't be a PPrincipal’s Day this term, a lot of students, especially returners who were there for the last in-person principals day, were the ones who were really hit by what Principal Rawson was doing. It's not only just a day off, but it's also just a cultural thing for the PEA community. Bringing it back would also boost morale a little bit.”
Lower Aaron Joy, however, appreciated the no-class Wednesdays. “Having an extended check-in period that night before [Wednesday] has improved mental health because [it promotes] camaraderie and people being able to hang out with their friends from other dorms for longer, which is nice.”
Physics Instructor Mark Hiza felt that the no-class Wednesdays helped to provide a balanced learning experience amidst the pandemic. “I believe the school has struck a balance between providing a meaningful, rigorous educational experience and acknowledging that we’re still in a pandemic,” Hiza said.
Hiza noted that although this term has been difficult, there is a sense of enjoyment in taking on hard work. “I guess I’m not a fan of the use of the word, stress, as a pejorative. Working as a teacher here puts some demands on me, but I enjoy working here, so I can embrace the fact that when school is in session, it takes up almost all of my time,” Hiza said.
Science Instructor Alison Hobbie encountered stress in different parts of teaching during the pandemic. “The greatest stress I feel is when I am teaching a hybrid class, when there are students on Zoom at the same time that most of my students are at the table,” Hobbie said. “My attention is continually split between these two groups, I worry about the technology, whether the remote students are getting a positive experience. It is the most stressful part of my day.”
Many students have found the Academy’s response lacking. “I think the way the school deals with mental health is completely hypocritical because the exact thing that they think is helping us learn is actually detrimental to our learning because they think giving us more work and more homework and more time in class is going to help us learn,” senior Phoebe Ibbotson said. “In reality, it means that we don't get enough sleep. We don't get rest. We don't get time to hang out with our friends. We don't get time to talk to therapists or counselors in the school or outside of the school. And that's making it even harder to take in that information and get a good education.”
Vivanco acknowledged there is an issue with how many students are requiring mental health support from the Academy. “I think it’s great that the school has many support systems put in place for students, but the fact that so many students need additional help with mental health is a problem in itself, because it means that there is a common cause that is causing such a large portion of the community to be feeling this way,” Vivanco said.
Masoudi expressed frustration with the Academy’s inclination to send students on medical leave as a sign of support. “The school will immediately go to med leave as an immediate option. I don't think that's the right way to do things. It's kind of like, if they think there's something wrong with someone, they will just remove them from campus, to get rid of that problem,” Masoudi said.
An anonymous Science instructor suggested that the Academy go beyond simply modifying the schedule and adjusting load to better accommodate faculty’s stress loads and mental health.“One idea is to make sure that all work is evenly distributed wherever possible. For instance, it’s customary in boarding schools to graduate from certain duties regarding the dorm and advisees, but maybe we find that this system doesn’t work for us anymore. Another is to invest in faculty residences and to look at how this housing benefit varies by residence,” they said.
Music Instructor Jerome Walker noted that changes in students’ stress must start with instructors taking specific actions. “It is one thing to say, ‘Okay some folks somewhere have decided that we're going to change the schedule and have more classes.’ That's great, but if classes are stressful, as students are finding classes stressful, it's not just, ‘Okay, let's shorten every class and that'll just do it,’” Walker said. “Every teacher has to say, ‘Okay, well, how am I making my class a less stressful place? How am I checking in with my students to make sure that I'm helping them to have a better time?’”
Dance Instructor Amberlee Darling added that giving students space for themselves will be helpful to the community’s wellbeing. “My worry now is for the students...I can see student wellbeing dwindling. I don't have the solutions for the rest of the term, but I hope we as a community can find a balance between our normal rigor and achievements and some space for student needs that might come up during the rest of the term,” Darling said.
Senior Emilio Abelmann emphasized that it is also important for students to actively take care of their own mental health. “I think students overall need to get better individually just understanding how they get stressed, why they get stressed, mitigating the sources of their stress,” Abelmann said. “I think there are some things students can do that they aren't yet. And they're just looking for the administration to relieve a lot of the current sources of stress, but I don't think that's a sustainable solution.”
Rauch believes that the Academy needs to make changes from a deeper level in order to alleviate students’ struggles with mental health. “The Academy as a whole is well intentioned. I believe that the administration wants students to have better mental health. This sentiment is not, however, reflected in our load as students. Teachers are left to interpret workload guidelines on their own, and while some have taken a very compassionate approach, others have not. Changes need to be made to more than just schedules,” Rauch said. “As Exeter’s culture stands—it feels like you need to suffer to count yourself an Exonian. We are an elite, selective institution—but there seems to be a disconnect on campus about whether our goal is to create highly productive members of a workforce, or well-rounded, healthy, intelligent members of society.”