Why did Taiwan University students commit suicide? - The school you don't know (18)

Fake news is spreading everywhere on the Internet, so in the past two years, I have seen reports with more sensational and exaggerated headlines. I always have to put my suspicions first, and consider whether it is another trick to cheat click-through rates.

Miura Haruma committed suicide? really! He is a popular first-line actor in Japan, and he is still shooting this Japanese drama on TBS TV! Yuko Takeuchi committed suicide? This is even more ridiculous. I just saw the news that she and her husband and children were having a good time, didn't they?

But these are not fake news. Both Miura and Takeuchi chose to leave because of psychological difficulties. Not only these two first-line actors, but this year alone, at least five well-known artists in the Japanese entertainment industry have died by suicide , The situation that happened mostly in the Korean entertainment industry in the past has now also spread to Japan. In fact, this is not a phenomenon unique to the entertainment industry, but a problem that exists in every corner of the world.

Taiwan, of course, is no exception. Taiwan University, the highest institution in China, has recently reported frequent news of students committing suicide.

The number of suicides in Taiwan is increasing year by year, but not many people realize its seriousness, especially the educational institutions responsible for the critical period of each national’s physical and mental development, including the Ministry of Education and schools, have done less than you and me in this regard. imagine.

According to the statistics of the World Health Organization, one person commits suicide every 40 seconds in the world, and the suicide rate in some countries is nearly 4 in 10,000. The meaning behind this seemingly small number means that suicide brings more deaths than war! Statistics in 2016 show that the average global suicide rate is 10.5 per 100,000 people. In Taiwan, it is 12.3, which is higher than the average. In 2018, it rose to 12.5. In other words, nearly 3,000 people die by suicide every year. Pay attention! This is the death toll, not including suicide failures!

In Taiwan, mental health has never been the responsibility of school education. Why do you say that? Because you will never see courses such as "mental counseling" and "mental health" on the class schedule, from the slogans shouted in ancient times: morality, intelligence, physique, socialism, beauty - equal emphasis on five education, to 108 lessons The core literacy education emphasized by the syllabus, no matter how you look for it, it is difficult to find any item related to mental health. Some people would say that mental health is a part of the core literacy project "physical and mental quality and self-improvement" in the 108 syllabus. The "Health Education" course and the "Health and Nursing" of the new syllabus also mention relevant content!

Stop deceiving yourself, "physical and mental quality and self-improvement" is obviously a partial term, the focus is on "self-improvement", especially for academic "self-improvement", not to mention health and nursing courses, with ordinary high school courses For example, among the 180 credits that must be completed in the whole three years, health and nursing only account for 2 credits . In other words, it is likely to be an hour-long course for the first grade. Whether it is enough to complete the physical health education in the past is doubtful. Don't dream about the part!

For a person's life, which is more important, mental health or trigonometry? Mental health and the ability to read classical Chinese is more important? Mental health and the memorization of the two English words "mental" and "health" which is more important?

Mental health problems can kill people!

Excessive emphasis on subject education, that is, examinations that are only used for higher education, has always been a disadvantage of Taiwan's education that cannot be changed. Efforts in the direction of balanced education, but obviously the results are quite limited. Most parents, students, and even educators themselves are still obsessed with the comparison of scores and the pros and cons of the ranking of departments, so that adaptive development has always been a utopia that is out of reach, non-disciplinary fields. It is also difficult to improve the predicament of being ignored.

Subject courses with an excessive weight will undoubtedly crowd out the time of other non-subject courses. Of course, mental health education is also one of those excluded. In the absence of formal courses, students' psychological counseling is usually handled by class tutors or instructors. Class tutors are the first-line educators who have the closest contact with students, and have received relevant training more or less. In general, psychological counseling work should not be too difficult, but the problem is that class tutors often have to deal with the entire class at the same time . Whether there are enough time and patience is the biggest test for the 30 to 40 students!

As for the instructors, the author is about to put a question mark. The cultivation of soldiers and the ecology in the army are completely different from the operation mechanism of society and even schools. In other words, many methods or ideas that work in the military can be applied to society or schools. It's a fantasy at all, not to mention psychological counseling and counseling that require professional training? Undoubtedly, many of the instructors who can enter the campus have excellent abilities, but if they want to use that soldier's head to guide students who are in a critical period of physical and mental development, it is strongly recommended to reconsider!

The psychological counseling of students is of course the most suitable for a full-time counselor. The ideal situation is to arrange a formal psychological counseling course and fix the psychological counseling course on the timetable. The chance of problems, you must know that when most people encounter psychological problems or difficulties, they will not take the initiative to talk to their classmates and class tutors, let alone tutors who do not teach at all. No matter how serious and professional the tutors are, there is nothing they can do.

For Michael Jordan to bring victory to the team, at least let him play first!

Mental health cannot be maintained by just a few reminders or slogans posted in stairwells and toilets. Under the current situation that cannot immediately change the structure of school education, schools should make good use of their spare time, such as weekly meetings, early self-study, etc. , arrange courses, lectures or discussions related to mental health counseling to increase the attention to students' mental health. Like all diseases, the earlier a mental health problem is detected, the higher the chance of a good recovery.

Adults have the worries of adults, and children also have their troubles. Perhaps from the perspective of adults, they will feel that the troubles of children are so insignificant, but for children, those insignificant problems may be making him not thinking about tea or eating. , even breathing is uncomfortable, try to listen and understand from the child's standpoint, instead of neglect or ridicule, help them face problems from a broader perspective, and then solve difficulties and take the next step towards their future.

Like a baseball game, the outcome is always unpredictable until the last number of outs. Life is the sum of choices, and you should always give yourself the opportunity to make the next choice. As long as you can choose, there are infinite possibilities to turn your life around.