The Problem with Wellness Wednesday
Shravya Nalla | April 4. 2023 | opinions
Every Early Release Wednesday, students are required to watch a 30-minute video during their third period A-day class about topics ranging from mental health issues to important life skills. Through these videos, students are said to gain a better understanding for health education, learn important ways to tackle stress-induced problems, and support their emotional health. Duval County Public School’s mission of improving student’s knowledge about character education, teachings of socially acceptable behavior, is evident through the inclusion of the Wellness Wednesday program. However, those in charge of the program fail to successfully get their students to implement the coping methods and other techniques mentioned in these videos, ultimately negating any positive intentions.
Through various programs, DCPS aims to promote health education and believes, in alignment with Florida laws, that students should be motivated to maintain their health. With the sudden increase of mental health disorders among Florida teenagers in 2019, Gov. Ron DeSantis hoped to inform students about overcoming various challenges and looking past them. In 2019, the Florida Department of Education, under Gov. DeSantis, passed a law stating that all school districts in the state of Florida must provide five hours of mental health instruction per year for students on a variety of topics. The following school year, the DCPS Behavioral Health Team and the DCPS Heatlh Education and Physical Education department created the Wellness Wednesday videos to adhere to this five-hour requirement.
The Wellness Wednesday videos are believed to align greatly with DCPS’s goal and the Florida State Statutes, specifically educating students of life skills that bring about confidence, support mental health improvement, and help with overcoming challenges. For instance, the videos administered to high schoolers discuss effective methods of eliminating stress and dealing with interpersonal conflicts. Although these videos consist of valuable information, many students fail to understand the importance of them and therefore do not implement the strategies discussed.
In fact, some students refuse to pay attention to the Wellness Wednesday videos as there lacks a real incentive for watching them. For others, the prospect of gaining knowledge about health education is not compelling enough. Students are not “tested” on the topics discussed in these videos and are aware that their academic career will not be in jeopardy if they do not participate in the Wellness Wednesday program. While the school district aims to educate their students on topics that are not taught in school, it is a difficult task to engage all students, especially those who are heavily academically focused, as this act does not count towards their GPA or affect their academic career.
Indeed, I have encountered various classmates who laugh at the content and joke around with their peers, mainly because they do not agree with the information presented or are not interested in learning more about health education. The intentions behind the Wellness Wednesday program are reasonable; however, the respective departments should acquire new ways to make the lesson plans more engaging for students. The Department of Health Education has received similar comments from various students watching their videos, bringing light to the need for interactive lessons.
According to Heather Albritton, the Director of Health Education and Physical Education, viewers, including students and faculty members, provide individual feedback on the videos through surveys, allowing for revisions to happen that appeal to the viewers’ needs. Such revisions include the addition of interactive exercises and opportunities for students to voice their opinion about the topic at hand. This is a great improvement from when the Wellness Wednesday program started off as PowerPoints and teachers were required to present information about health education.
“We have talked to student government representatives from each school to get feedback [on the videos],” said Albritton. “The [responses] are both positives and negatives and we take that negative and do the best we can to make the necessary changes to the videos, trying to listen to the needs of the students.”
Though the creators’ consideration of the views of students and educators could be a sign of improvements to come, these modifications should not be considered remedies to the problems addressed previously. Even after all the changes, students are still not taking these videos seriously. DCPS should consider testing students on the topics discussed in these videos, ensuring everyone’s engagement. In addition, the script should be modified to match the language and maturity of each grade level. Albritton discussed how students, specifically high schoolers, would complain that the teachers would talk to them in a childish tone, similar to how individuals talk to babies. This is a complaint DCPS received and is looking into changing the upcoming videos.
From the old PowerPoints presented by teachers to the current videos viewed by every DCPS student, the Wellness Wednesday program has changed tremendously over the years, improving students’ understanding of character education along the way. The Wellness Wednesday program is unique to us and should remain a part of our curriculum. As always, DCPS should continue listening to the feedback given by students, as this is the only effective way of improving student viewership.