Vatterott, a professor emerita of education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, posits that traditional approaches to scheduling, classroom management, grading, and instruction frequently work directly against the natural developmental needs of adolescents. However, recognizing these systemic flaws does not mean schools should lower their academic expectations or compromise on rigor. Rather, Vatterott advocates for a sweeping shift toward a "wellness paradigm"\u2014a framework that treats mental health as an integral component of overall health and explicitly recognizes that every single adult within a school building plays a vital role in supporting student well-being.<\/p>\n
Embracing this paradigm shift can encompass a variety of tangible changes, ranging from giving students greater autonomy over their learning paths and reconsidering how homework and grades are handled, to establishing more consistent schoolwide policies, strengthening meaningful relationships with trusted adults, and providing students with structured opportunities to manage stress and cultivate self-regulation skills. <\/p>\n
EdSurge recently spoke with Vatterott to discuss her latest book, exploring how schools can transition away from stress-inducing environments and toward spaces where students feel genuinely valued, heard, and empowered to take charge of their own education.<\/p>\n
Beyond Band-Aids: Unpacking Harmful School Practices<\/h2>\n
In The Teens Are Not Alright<\/em>, Vatterott argues that schools cannot simply "teach their way out" of today\u2019s severe teen mental health crisis through SEL, mindfulness, and other surface-level interventions. Instead, institutions must confront the underlying practices that actively contribute to student stress. When asked to identify some of the most harmful practices and explain why they remain so difficult for schools to change, Vatterott pointed directly to the structure of the school day.<\/p>\n The first major issue, she notes, is the rigid and relentless schedule common in secondary education. In a typical seven-period high school schedule, students are expected to juggle seven entirely different classes, forcing them to rapidly shift their mental state from one academic subject to another with a mere three minutes of passing time in between, often accompanied by a hurried 20-minute lunch break. Vatterott questions whether such a frantic pace truly serves the developmental needs of students or if it exists merely for the convenience of teachers, administrative management, or tradition.<\/p>\n The second major practice driving student distress is the sheer volume of homework assigned in many secondary schools, which Vatterott describes as absolutely insane. She attributes the persistence of heavy homework loads to three deeply ingrained misconceptions. First, schools frequently confuse academic load with true rigor, operating under the assumption that if some work is good, more must inherently be better. Second, institutions often confuse compliance with genuine responsibility, attempting to teach students responsibility through rote obedience. Finally, middle and high schools frequently confuse replication with preparation, reasoning that because students will face a heavy workload in high school or college, they must be subjected to similar pressure earlier in their academic careers. Vatterott argues that the proper goal should instead be preparing students to become independent, self-directed learners.<\/p>\n Addressing student stress naturally raises concerns about academic standards, but Vatterott emphasizes that schools can reduce pressure without lowering their expectations. Educators must be able to hold two seemingly competing ideas in their minds at the same time: that learning environments can be redesigned to be less stressful without compromising the quality of education. <\/p>\n Research consistently demonstrates that student well-being serves as a necessary foundation for academic learning. Drawing from trauma research, educators know that hungry or intensely stressed children cannot effectively engage in higher-level learning. Vatterott champions the concept of "Maslow before Bloom," emphasizing that a student’s basic physiological and psychological needs must be met before they can successfully tackle advanced cognitive tasks.<\/p>\n Furthermore, Vatterott challenges the notion that reducing stress requires doing less assessment, suggesting instead that schools need to do different<\/em> types of assessing. When examining grading practices, she asks whether schools can stop counting homework toward a final grade. Given the widespread availability and use of artificial intelligence tools among students, Vatterott argues that there has never been a more obvious time to recognize that grading homework is inherently unfair. This shift does not mean eliminating homework entirely, but rather making students explicitly aware of the learning goals they must achieve, what upcoming assessments will look like, and what steps they need to take to master the material.<\/p>\n Classroom assessments can also be significantly de-stressed by ensuring that every student is given adequate time to finish and by verifying that they have been properly prepared and know what information they need to succeed.<\/p>\n A central theme woven throughout Vatterott\u2019s book is the profound developmental need adolescents have for autonomy. When asked what meaningful autonomy actually looks like in middle and high school, and how teachers can grant it while still maintaining classroom structure and meeting educational standards, Vatterott pushes back against what she views as a false dichotomy.<\/p>\n The belief that providing students with autonomy automatically destroys classroom structure or prevents educators from meeting rigorous standards is a misconception that must be discarded. Adolescents inherently need autonomy and independence, but this does not mean an all-or-nothing approach. Vatterott uses the analogy of learning to drive: just as parents would never place a teenager behind the steering wheel without prior instruction, training, and supervision, they would also never dream of denying a teenager the chance to drive indefinitely. At some point, young people must be handed the keys.<\/p>\n Gradually introducing autonomy means moving away from a strictly teacher-directed environment toward offering students meaningful choices, eventually progressing into collaborative decision-making. Teachers can start small, even extending beyond academics into everyday classroom management. Vatterott notes that teachers and students can co-create rules and routines together. Simple questions\u2014such as whether students can have water bottles at their desks, or what the agreed-upon guidelines should be for talking or using the restroom\u2014can be placed in the hands of the students themselves, fostering genuine autonomy. Fostering independence is, after all, how adolescents successfully transition into capable adults.<\/p>\n The intense achievement culture prevalent in many modern schools takes a heavy toll on teenagers. When considering how much of today’s student stress is manufactured by adults\u2014including parents, educators, and the college admissions industry\u2014Vatterott acknowledges that the contribution is substantial, varying by community but reaching extreme levels in certain areas. While the high-pressure college admissions process plays a major role, Vatterott stresses that parents do not have to buy into a rigid, all-or-nothing mindset regarding higher education.<\/p>\n A critical area that requires transformation is adult messaging. Teachers, administrators, and parents must broaden what they publicly celebrate and showcase as achievement within their schools. If a student is dedicating extraordinary time to community volunteer work, or pursuing creative and artistic endeavors outside of officially sanctioned school extracurriculars, those contributions should be recognized and valued just as much as traditional academic milestones.<\/p>\n Vatterott also cautions against the pervasive "groupthink" message communicated by many adults, which often implies that a single misstep will permanently doom a teenager’s future. Forcing 15-year-olds to make definitive, life-shaping decisions prematurely denies them the freedom to explore diverse interests and discover their own paths. Moreover, society often fails to dignify alternative life choices beyond the traditional narrative of attending a four-year college or entering the military, highlighting an urgent need for expanded career education and exploration programs.<\/p>\n For school principals operating under severe resource constraints who want to address growing mental health needs without immediately hiring more counselors or launching expensive new programs, Vatterott offers three practical, low-cost strategies that can be implemented rapidly.<\/p>\n First, schools must begin truly listening to students. Recognizing that counselors alone cannot shoulder the entire burden, Vatterott suggests leveraging existing tools, such as social-emotional screening data, to identify potential red flags and incorporating brief, weekly check-ins. When every student identifies at least one trusted adult in the building\u2014and that adult takes just a few minutes in the hallway or classroom to connect\u2014the impact can be remarkably beneficial.<\/p>\n Second, schools must empower students by granting them genuine representative power. Giving students a structured way to voice their primary concerns and bringing those concerns directly to school administration helps young people feel that they have a measure of control over their environment.<\/p>\n Third, for schools operating in large physical facilities, Vatterott suggests staggering class release times across different hallways or building sections. Examining the sheer logistical stress experienced by a thousand students attempting to navigate congested corridors in a tight five-minute passing window can immediately reveal preventable sources of daily anxiety.<\/p>\n To truly transform school culture, educational problem-solving must shift away from a purely behavior-based approach. Traditional methods often focus narrowly on compliance\u2014asking how to force students to show up, complete assignments, and behave properly\u2014rather than investigating the underlying whole-child needs that influence student actions. <\/p>\n While schools have begun to view attendance and behavioral challenges through a more compassionate mental health and wellness lens, a broader mindset shift is still desperately needed. Mental health and wellness must be elevated to the same level of importance as academic achievement. Vatterott expresses frustration that despite the widespread disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, many institutions have defaulted back to prioritizing test scores and rigid standards over student mental health, sometimes narrowing their entire focus to superficial solutions like banning mobile phones. While phone policies matter, they represent only one piece of a much larger puzzle.<\/p>\n If schools fully embrace the wellness paradigm outlined in Vatterott\u2019s work, the everyday atmosphere of a school day would look and feel markedly different. From a student\u2019s perspective, the most noticeable change would be the overarching "vibe"\u2014a relaxed, calm, and productive work environment where students and staff alike do not appear constantly rushed or frantic. Students in stress-reduced, wellness-focused schools report feeling respected, valued, and in control of their own learning, leading to deeper engagement and a healthier balance between academics, social interaction, and personal interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As schools across the country grapple with a well-documented mental health crisis among students\u2014a distressing trend that was already escalating well before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic\u2014institutions have rushed to respond. Many have implemented social-emotional learning, commonly known as SEL, alongside various wellness programs and mindfulness initiatives. Yet, a critical question is beginning to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":1479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1465,2048,1463,1437,2193,526,1464,2194,2192,1517,16,184,1473,2191],"class_list":["post-1480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-academics","tag-crisis","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-fueling","tag-health","tag-learning","tag-mental","tag-practices","tag-rethinking","tag-school","tag-schools","tag-student","tag-traditional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tcjsj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tcjsj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tcjsj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tcjsj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tcjsj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tcjsj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tcjsj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tcjsj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tcjsj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tcjsj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Maintaining Rigor While Reducing Stress<\/h2>\n
The Developmental Necessity of Autonomy<\/h2>\n
![\"Are](\"https:\/\/images.ctfassets.net\/eflsecw4kznd\/7faQzQxowooaZ088HEzhgO\/3c8b01b30573dcded421443eeb23a1ee\/shutterstock_2760793281.jpg?w=1200\")
<\/figure>\nConfronting Achievement Culture and Adult Messaging<\/h2>\n
Actionable Steps for Resource-Strapped Schools<\/h2>\n
Shifting Toward a Whole-Child Perspective<\/h2>\n