Waving Through a Story
Some of the most important gifts we can offer young adults are media that reflects their world back to them.
Welcome to From the Teacher’s Desk, where we take turns further reflecting on our episodes and applications to the classroom.
I know Sarah and I have already validated our love of musicals – but I can’t talk enough about Dear Evan Hansen through the lens of a high school teacher.
TEEN MENTAL HEALTH
Working in a classroom after the 2020 school year means seeing students’ mental health needs written all over their faces. Adolescents, like many of the rest of us, are raw and vulnerable right now. They’re still living through a world without regular peer interactions or parents who can guide them through a world they’ve already known. They have been told time and again that gun rights are far more important than their lives. Anxiety and depression are the norms, while school systems still do little to nothing to address social and emotional health.
But in Dear Evan Hansen, it’s not about the broken education system. It’s not about the teachers. In fact, there are very few adults outside of parents who are present in Evan’s story. Instead, this is a story about anxiety solely from teenager to teenager. The play works to strip away all the other social spheres in Evan’s life outside of those where he interacts directly with people his own age. This is why Evan’s cell phone and social media play the biggest role in advancing the plot.
And this is also a good reminder to those of us who have advanced beyond our adolescent years. It may feel cliché to say being a teenager is hard in today’s world – but it really is. When a young adult feels anxious or social tension, this is reaffirmed every time they engage in online communication. They are constantly barraged by notifications and likes and other people’s opinions, all while trying to complete a basic set of math problems for tomorrow’s class. There is no longer silence in their worlds. And a lot of the noise they’re constantly hearing is really heavy.
GIVE THEM SPACE
This is why I advocate so heavily for screen-free choice reading time in my classrooms. I can’t fix everything in my students’ lives. But I can help them find books where they are known and seen and loved. If you’re looking for powerful young adult literature that addresses mental health, here are five of my favorites. A few of these titles have literally saved some of my students’ lives:
It’s Kind of a Funny Story (Vizzini) – This book is one step away from autobiography, and it’s important to know Ned Vizzini committed suicide not long after publishing this work. But maybe it’s because of this that his story is so raw and human in the way it talks about depression.
Turtles All the Way Down (Green) – Outside of Anthropocene Reviewed, this is arguably my favorite work of John Green’s. It is especially poignant in the way his protagonist talks about her OCD. Definitely worth the read.
Winter Girls (Anderson) – I have to start by saying I’ve met Laurie Halse Anderson. I actually cried on her shoulder as I told her how this book changed a student’s life. This is one of those books that every person who struggles with body shame and self-hatred needs to read.
Birthday (Russo) – Meredith Russo is one of my all-time favorite queer authors. And I really love the way this novel maps out the journey of self-discovery as a trans person. There are two narrators, and there’s a beautiful little love story along the way. Cannot recommend it enough!
We Are Okay (LaCour) – I read this book over a weekend, which is a feat in my current world. The way Nina LaCour writes about loss and grief feels like an open wound. This story reminded me that love always has a way of breaking through the cracks of our broken hearts.
What about you? What books have helped save your life? And if you haven’t checked out our episode on Dear Evan Hansen, you can find it here.
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