5 Reasons Why Mental Health Awareness Belongs in the ELA Classroom

There is nothing more reassuring than knowing that you are not alone in what you’re feeling, especially if what you’re feeling is negative or challenging. Literature offers us a wide variety of characters who show readers the complexity of human experience and allow them to see that they’re not alone in how they feel. But that’s not the only benefit of highlighting mental health awareness in the ELA classroom.

1.    Literature is filled with mental health—both good and bad (ok, mostly bad)

From The Catcher in the Rye to The Bluest Eye to Death of a Salesman, the literature our students engage with is rife with mental health disorders and challenges.

Good storytelling relies on drama, and drama needs complex and engaging characters.  Holden Caulfield is not okay. Thankfully, he’s telling his story to a psychiatrist. When I was a young high school ELA teacher, I vowed to reread Catcher every year, whether I was teaching it or not. Why? So that I would never lose sight of the fact that it is hard to be a teenager. I’m not exactly sure when I stopped my annual Catcher ritual, but it was undoubtedly when I realized that I didn’t have to reread Salinger to be reminded that teenagers face mental health challenges.

Sylvia Plath was revolutionary in her frank discussion of mental illness in The Bell Jar. The battle that Plath’s protagonist fought (albeit unsuccessfully) against mental illness is vivid and still resonates with a contemporary young audience.

Representation is important for LGBTQ+ students, especially those who may not find acceptance at home or the greater community. For as long as literature has existed, there have been queer characters. Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray shows a gay protagonist from a different era. Contemporary works such as Torrey Peters’ Detransition, Baby show trans characters which were rare at one time but are thankfully becoming more present in literature.

Willy Loman is unfulfilled and depressed. I first encountered Death of a Salesman as a sophomore in high school when my own father was unemployed, unfulfilled, and severely depressed, and his depression had a big impact on my mental health. Did Arthur Miller offer me any solutions? No, but he did allow me to feel less alone. High praise for any work of literature, isn’t it?

2.    As ELA educators we’ve developed skills for talking about hard stuff

We’re not social workers, who have a unique set of skills that allows them to engage thoughtfully and therapeutically with students who face mental health challenges. But as ELA teachers we have our own set of skills that are helpful for mental health awareness. We know how to lead respectful class discussions on serious and challenging topics. By discussing such topics in a respectful, pro-social way we are modeling positive communication for our students and that type of communication leads to positive mental health.

3.    Words matter—vocabulary matters

Big feelings require a lot of words. Try to describe how you felt when your parents got divorced or when your grandmother died and you’re going to need a quiver of vocabulary to hit your target. The ELA classroom grows vocabulary and thus a powerful resource that students have to talk about how they’re feeling and what they’re experiencing.

4.    We look at characters from a variety of angles—we embrace complexity

Through our discussions of literature, we encourage students to think about subtlety and nuance in characters. The ability to see characters as complex and multifaceted is a skill that serves students outside the classroom. Just as Walter in A Raisin in the Sun is abrasive and hurtful to his family, readers can also appreciate how his personal history led him to his current situation and why he feels as strongly as he does.

5.    Writing helps to process—a lot

According to Psychology Today, writing can help to relieve stress and anxiety, improve memory, boost self-awareness, give writers a sense of accomplishment, strengthen relationships, and lead to greater productivity.

One benefit that I’m especially fond of as an ELA teacher is that writing improves creativity. We can get bogged down in test prep, close reading skills, and vocabulary building (all of which are important) and overlook the value in creative expression and honoring our students’ creative spirits.

Journaling can help the writer to manage symptoms of depression and other mental health conditions. Writing about feelings can help the writer to process them and find ways to cope with them. It is also a healthy way to release pent-up emotions before they influence your interpersonal behavior in negative ways, according to Psychology Today.

Hope

If there's one thing anyone needs who is facing a mental health challenge, it is hope. According to the National Institute of Health, "Hope underpins the recovery process of mental illness, as recovery depends on the notion that a patient desires to get better. This makes hope the route by which it occurs."

I love teaching Emily Dickinson's poem "Hope is the Thing With Feathers" because it offers students the reminder that there's always hope. If you're thinking of teaching this poem, please check out my complete lesson in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

What works of literature have been important to you as you’ve navigated your own mental health? How have you seen your ELA classroom benefit mental health awareness? Please share your thoughts in the comments.