Abstract
A student's life is mentally demanding and time-consuming for any learner. U.S. culture values hard work, no excuses mantras, and discipline to achieve a graduate degree or the next promotion, and often it is a badge of honor to be overcommitted, stressed out, and exhausted. As mental and physical health issues arise, the implementation of a health and wellness statement for graduate students was utilized to open the proverbial door to hold space and grace for life's challenges and empower learners in an inclusive setting.
TopBackground
The concept behind our current health and wellness statement originated from a Twitter post authored by a Brown University professor of Sociology, Dr. Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve (2019). We were not only drawn to her work based on the need for students to know we see them as humans who need rest and the overall value of communication about mental and physical health, but we were enamored that the document discussed the self-care and potential vulnerability of the university instructor. Allowing our students to be human and make mistakes also gives us similar allowances. We have all had a time when our grading did not get done as it should have because “life happened.” There is no shame in that as long as we communicate with students and then get the grading done promptly once the situation has passed. Students are more willing to allow me to have a couple of extra days to comment on their assignments if I allow them similar grace. I have also found that grading is not more complicated, even with a more liberal policy. For each assignment, I may have one or two students that need a bit of extra time. They almost always have work submitted by the time I grade, assuming a one-week grading turnaround. After partnered discussions and revisions to consider all levels of our graduate and undergraduate learners, the original statement was slightly altered for our needs as instructors and our curriculum. The initial health and wellness statement was exclusively utilized in the fall of 2020 in a capstone graduate course to potentially ease tensions, provide comfort and act as a buffer for students that were also full-time educators in an online Master's program. With the combined effects of Covid and a post-pandemic world, awareness of our health and wellness as college educators forced us to reevaluate our self-care and boundaries and reflect on our need for space and grace. Our health and wellness statement was edited for the second time, and it was fully integrated into all of our courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels in both face-to-face and online settings by the Spring 2021 semester.
Key Terms in this Chapter
PK12 Teachers: Individuals who educate students at the pre-Kindergarten through the 12th-grade level.
PK12 Students: Individuals who are enrolled in early childhood education through 12th grade.
SEL (Social and Emotional Learning): The practice of demonstrating appropriate social and emotional skills through the process of learning and individual growth.
Wellness: A dynamic state of being that spans a continuum and requires one to actively become aware of the decision-making process that leads toward a more positive and balanced existence.
COVID-19 Pandemic: The widely accepted terminology for the novel coronavirus elevated to a global pandemic in March 2020.
Health: A multi-dimensional state of being, which encompasses physical, psychological, social, intellectual, spiritual, and environmental health that indicate more than merely being absent of illness or disease.