Episode 136: Balancing the Books and the Brain — Why Student Wellness Matters

The relentless push for academic excellence often comes at a steep price for our children's mental health and overall development. As students progress through middle and high school, the scales increasingly tip toward achievement metrics while wellness takes a backseat. But what if success in both areas isn't just possible—but necessary?

Drawing from cutting-edge research in positive psychology and educational engagement, this episode reveals how mental well-being directly fuels academic performance. The evidence is compelling: students who maintain healthy psychological states demonstrate stronger creativity, better retention, and ultimately higher achievement than their stressed counterparts. Simultaneously, academic success contributes to improved self-concept and life satisfaction in a powerful reciprocal relationship.

The sobering reality that up to 25% of adolescents experience anxiety disorders demands our immediate attention. I'll guide you through practical, research-backed strategies that both schools and parents can implement—from reimagining school schedules and environments to incorporating simple wellness practices like mindfulness, adequate sleep, and strategic physical activity. These approaches don't require sacrificing academic aspirations; rather, they enhance learning capacity by nurturing the whole child.

Whether you're a parent concerned about your child's school pressures, an educator seeking more balanced approaches, or an advocate for educational reform, you'll discover actionable insights to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The education system can't continue treating children as "detached receptacles for academic knowledge"—our students deserve better, and this episode shows you exactly how to provide it.

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Chapters

• 1:40 Introducing K-12 Education Untangled
• 4:10 Understanding Wellness and School Engagement
• 10:05 Mental Well-being Impact on Achievement
• 13:31 Mental Health Services in Schools
• 18:17 Creating Caring School Environments
• 23:24 Sleep, Exercise, and Student Performance
• 30:58 Action Steps and Takeaways

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:56

Welcome to another episode of K-12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr Kim J Fields, former corporate manager turned education researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microaggressions that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids, who were in the public school system. I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their education and progress. This battle-tested experience is what I provide as action steps for you to take. It's like enjoying a bowl of educational research with a sprinkling of mother wisdom on top. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in public education that could affect you and your children, and the action steps that you can take to give your children the advantages they need, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K-12 public education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening. Give me 30 minutes and I'll untangle the latest trends, issues and topics pertaining to this constantly evolving K-12 public education environment.

Speaker 1: 2:45

In this episode, I'll be discussing best practices for how a student can balance academic achievement while keeping well-being a priority. How much of an impact does mental well-being have on academic achievement? As students enter middle school and high school, the focus tends to be on academic achievement, sometimes at the risk of their mental well-being. There should be a balance to both achieving academically and maintaining well-being. I discuss the topic of balancing achievement with well-being and the strategies that can be utilized to help maintain this balance. In this episode, let's untangle this. Wellness has been defined as activities and attitudes which improve the quality of life and expand potential for higher levels of functioning. Wellness is a measure of well-being that comes from the areas of positive psychology, risk and resilience, and social-emotional learning. Positive psychology emphasizes building human strengths, virtues and competencies over the remediation of negative emotions and mental illness.

Speaker 1: 4:16

School engagement is a topic that comes up frequently regarding academic achievement, school completion and student well-being. School engagement is a multi-dimensional concept that includes a student's liking for learning in school, how students persist in learning and students' use of meaningful information processing strategies and learning. There is, however, no one clear path to academic success through school engagement. Supporting student engagement in school may be a natural way to support student well-being. Student engagement has been positively correlated with health-promoting ideas and behaviors like exercise and proper nutrition. The broader the engagement and participation in school, the more positive the academic, psychological and behavioral outcomes. Positive school engagement helps to protect students from poor academic achievement as well as a number of other negative outcomes. Teacher support and instructional practices are important aspects of engagement, and teacher support is an important part of student well-being due to the connectedness of the relationship. There's a strong relationship between life satisfaction and cognitive engagement in school activities. Life satisfaction is a major indicator of subjective well-being. Students who are happier perform well in various areas and their positive performance leads to greater life satisfaction. Schools are in a favorable position to implement preventive and resilience building programs that potentially produce far-reaching benefits.

Speaker 1: 6:12

The social and emotional learning movement has also contributed to well-being efforts. Recent data indicate that upwards of 20% of children and adolescents have identifiable mental health problems. Mental health problems and the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality reports that 25% of adolescents have experienced an anxiety disorder and 12.5% of students have experienced a major depressive disorder. These reports indicate that work remains to be done in improving and maintaining the positive mental health of our children. Therefore, a focus on academic achievement while maintaining well-being is worthy of your attention. An instrument such as the Child and Adolescence Wellness Scale, which supports various wellness dimensions, could also support a strengths-based intervention approach to IEPs. This instrument could also be used as a pre and post-test for universal social-emotional learning curricula.

Speaker 1: 7:33

Universal social-emotional learning curricula, class engagement and its motivations positively impact mental well-being. The fact is that being academically successful may not always be enough to be happy and well. Just going to class and passing exams proves to be inadequate for long-term learning, educational and personal development. Classroom engagement involves actively being in the moment, attentively listening, focusing on the lesson, speaking up and asking questions and interacting with the teacher and fellow students, all within the context of the learning process. Subjective well-being was found to positively predict teenagers' motivation to attend class and to engage in class. In other words, motivation for class engagement may be a factor that supports students' mental well-being.

Speaker 1: 8:31

Mental well-being is a concept that emphasizes having a meaningful life, frequent positive feelings, less negative emotions, being satisfied with life and being functional. It's also about having a positive perception of oneself, being satisfied with oneself even when that person is aware of his or her limitations, developing safe and warm relationships with others, shaping the environment to meet personal needs and wishes, acting autonomously and independently. Autonomously and independently, having an aim and meaning in life and being aware of an individual's capacity and the associated efforts to develop that capacity. Research indicates that people who have a high level of mental well-being have strong creativity and immune systems, have very good relationships with other people and are very productive at work. Their physical and psychological health is very good and the quality of life is strong. Mental well-being affects the academic success, because self-esteem and being aware of a student's capacity will bring about the desire to achieve success. Some studies indicate that as the level of academic achievement increases, mental well-being also increases.

Speaker 1: 10:04

The question is should mental health services fall within the scope of public education? Schools may represent the best opportunity to provide students with necessary access to mental health care. Professional school counselors have the qualifications and experience to address the mental health and social-emotional needs of students. Mental well-being programs and services, when properly utilized in K-12 public education, result in academic achievement gains. Schools are the foundation of society's commitment to help students become productive citizens. To help students become productive citizens. According to the National Institute of Mental Health.

Speaker 1: 10:51

As many as one in five school-aged children experience symptoms of a diagnosable mental or behavioral health condition. These present as social-emotional conditions, impairment in the school setting. That includes stress, absenteeism, behavior and discipline problems, poor concentration dropout, delays in learning and social skill deficits, to name a few. Professional school counselors can work with these students to get them back on the road to mental well-being. Supporting students' mental well-being creates significant improvements in school climate, student behavior and academic performance. Schools need to treat students as whole people. While student achievement is a major goal of public education, children come to school with a wide variety of needs and should be treated as whole people rather than quote detached receptacles for academic knowledge. End quote. Consider the impact on children of the following demographic trends About 50 percent of first marriages in the United States and 60 percent of second marriages end in divorce.

Speaker 1: 13:14

Recent research has demonstrated how devastating to children such family breakups can be. Single parents, married parents and remarried parents are joining the workforce in ever-increasing numbers. Therefore, few children have a caregiver at home who does not also have a full-time or part-time job. Have a full-time or part-time job. The toll of having too much unsupervised time after school for millions of teenagers includes them getting involved with drugs, alcohol, sex and gangs. A recent Gallup poll reported that 6% of teenagers have tried to commit suicide and that 15% have considered suicide because of family problems, depression, conflict with friends, feelings of worthlessness and difficulties with male-female relationships. Surveys on television viewing suggest that America's elementary school children watch about 30 hours of television each week. Compounding these trends is the socially toxic environment in which children are being raised. Violence, poverty and other life pressures are producing alienation, nastiness, paranoia and depression. These and other social pollutants undermine families and communities as they threaten children's emotional well-being. Some studies suggest that there has been a 50% decline over the past 30 years in the amount of time parents have actually been engaged with their children. This lack of constructive parental involvement exacerbates the effects of other negative influences in children's lives.

Speaker 1: 15:22

So what can schools do to promote a more caring environment, one that attempts to negate the impact of horrible social trends, while also promoting better academic achievement and mental well-being? There are several innovative programs that highlight the importance of children's overall development to school success, including the School Development Program founded at Yale University. The goal of the program is to provide developmentally appropriate activities that help students improve their social, emotional and academic growth. Of course, parents are also instrumental resources for their schools and community. They can work with children other than their own to share insights and experiences about challenges and opportunities, as well as accountability in managing each developmental stage as they grow up. Just being that supportive person who responds to students' strengths and needs is helpful. Schools need to strike a balance between caring and academic. Rigor because students thrive from both perspectives. Rigor because students thrive from both perspectives.

Speaker 1: 16:45

When schools attend to basic aspects of students' school experiences, like morning schedule, lunch and activity time or the building's physical environment, these can significantly improve a student's academic focus, concentration and mental well-being. Things like switching the bus schedule to pick up elementary students before high school students can reduce stress at both levels, as older students get more rest and parents of younger children are able to get to work earlier. Another example is mealtime. On paper, 20 minutes is enough time to eat, but in practice, if you're the first child in line, you're lucky. If you're the last child in line in a class of 25 students, you might have five minutes to eat. Timing of when students eat is another factor. Timing of when students eat is another factor. Research conducted at the Harvard University School of Public Health found that students who had lunch period near noon ate 6% more of their food than students who had early lunch periods and 14% more food than students with late lunch periods. Students who had at least 25 minutes to eat from the time they sat down finished significantly more of their meal than did students who had less than 20 minutes to eat. No doubt there is a connection between being full and academic performance. Lunch also provides a space for social and emotional education.

Speaker 1: 18:29

Exercise is another important aspect for developing mental well-being. This goes for children as well as adults. Children learn through movement as well as adults. Children learn through movement through activity. The classroom should sound more like a construction site than a museum. Children ages six and older need to get at least 60 minutes of vigorous exercise each day, but fewer than one in three US students meets that standard each week. There's also evidence of a connection between more sedentary students and less academic engagement. Children need to have more built-in movement throughout the day by getting up and moving around, wiggling, waddling and visioning. Classrooms that allow this type of activity, permissive learning environments, had students with more academic engagement and progress. Poor air quality in the school can negatively impact mental well-being, according to the Environmental Protection Agency statistics, nearly half of schools in this country have unhealthy levels of pollutants, pollen, dust and other contaminants that can contribute to chronic illnesses and lower academic achievement over time. Poor air quality means a reduction in oxygen levels and especially for the brain, this impacts cognition.

Speaker 1: 20:05

Sleep has a significant impact on well-being for children and adults. From elementary to high school. Students make a trade-off of giving up an hour or two of sleep for homework or an extra study session. This sort of trade-off is bad for students' long-term memory grades and mental well-being. The National Sleep Foundation estimates that more than two out of three secondary school students don't get the recommended nine hours of sleep a night. The increased workload of many high school students comes at the same time of students' social calendars that are filling up and their bodies are shifting to a new sleep rhythm. Teenagers still need eight to nine hours of sleep for their bodies and minds to develop.

Speaker 1: 21:04

Teachers and parents need to look at their students. Workloads and the hyper achievement pressure to take as many advanced placement courses as possible needs to be balanced to make sure that students get as much sleep as possible. Teachers need not only be aware of how their students are doing academically, but how they're doing mentally as well. Educators need to teach students to be aware of their emotions and their thoughts. Educators should teach students to treat themselves with compassion, which is key to their well-being and resilience key to their well-being and resilience. Teachers can do this by incorporating just five minutes of mindfulness into their classrooms to help students focus inwardly and check in on how they're feeling. Educators could find creative ways to incorporate play and social-emotional skills in their classrooms, such as playing games or even practicing yoga. It's important for them to focus on mindfulness techniques because society's obsession with academic performance in preparing students for tests leaves them drained and empty. Students should be well-educated, yes, but focusing on their well-being mitigates those same students being at risk.

Speaker 1: 22:32

There are things that teachers, counselors and administrators can do to cultivate the school environment that promotes mental well-being and academic success for students who may not fully participate in school environment to student-athletes One encourage healthy sleep schedules, because sleep is extremely important for academic learning, attention, memory and executive function, as well as overall performance. Two encourage growth mindsets that focus on the process of developing mastery over time. Three practice safe social media use. Excessive social media use has been associated with mental health risks and challenges like anxiety, depression and stress in teenagers. 4. Participate in extracurricular activities of interest to the student alongside academic pursuit. These extracurricular activities could include a competitive component, such as music, debate or art activities. 5. Provide an environment for a healthy line of communication between the student and a counselor or school representative. The communication can focus on academics, but should also be about the student's well-being. And sixth, ensure adequate access to mental health resources if needed.

Speaker 1: 24:17

Now let's move from just listening to this discussion to applying it. With that in mind, how does what I've just discussed apply to you? Here are the action steps you can take regarding this topic. As a parent, you want to make sure that your child progresses through school with successful academic achievement, but you also want to protect them from issues of burnout, overwhelm and other emotional situations. Keeping them grounded, mentally strong and balanced in their perspectives of the importance of education and self-care are most important to you.

Speaker 1: 25:00

Incorporating well-being activities or exercises is crucial to balancing achievement and well-being. These activities can include watching a sunrise or sunset, unplugging from devices, completing a jigsaw puzzle or crossword puzzle, coloring, painting or drawing. Moderate exercise, adequate sleep, organizing your physical space, listening to upbeat music, staring at the stars, reading for fun, stretching, engaging with an animal, utilizing breathing techniques, practicing gratitude, exploring nature and practicing kindness. These simple activities help to incorporate self-care as a daily practice. Pursuing academic achievement is important, but equally important is doing so while recognizing the importance of self-care and well-being, even for your children. Here are this episode's takeaways.

Speaker 1: 26:33

Mental well-being is a concept that emphasizes having a meaningful life, frequent positive feelings, less negative emotions, being satisfied with life and being functional. It's also about having a positive perception of oneself, being satisfied with oneself even when that person is aware of his or her limitations, developing safe and warm relationships with others, shaping the environment to meet personal needs and wishes, acting autonomously and independently, having an aim and meaning in life and being aware of an individual's capacity and the associated efforts to develop that capacity. Wellness has been defined as the attitudes and activities which improve the quality of life and expand potential for higher levels of functioning. Wellness is a measure of well-being that comes from the areas of positive psychology, risk and resilience, and social-emotional learning. Positive psychology emphasizes building human strengths, virtues and competencies over the remediation of negative emotions and mental illness.

Speaker 1: 27:55

When schools attend to basic aspects of students' school experiences, like morning schedules, lunch and activity time or the building's physical environment. These can significantly improve a student's academic focus, concentration and mental well-being. Teachers need not only to be aware of how their students are doing academically, but how they're doing mentally as well. Educators need to teach students to be aware of their emotions and their thoughts. Educators should teach students to treat themselves with compassion, which is key to their well-being and resistance. Teachers can do this by incorporating just five minutes of mindfulness into their classrooms to help students focus inwardly and check in on how they're feeling.

Speaker 1: 29:02

What are your thoughts about balancing achievement with well-being? Let me know what you're thinking by leaving me a text comment on my podcast website, k12educationuntangledbuzzsproutcom. If you like this podcast, click, follow on your podcast player of choice to subscribe and get the latest episodes. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel, k-12 Education Untangled, to get the latest episodes. Thanks for tuning in today. I hope you'll come back for more K-12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day.