Let me start by saying I do not want to take anymore classes. I am at the end of my educational career for the most part and the less time and money I have to spend on class the better.
That being said, there is a clear need for college students across the nation and specifically at this institution to take a class that provides meaningful and helpful tools to students to improve their health.
The majority of students usually will not run into content or lesson that teach them about critical things such as their mental health or emotional stability. We barely get classes that work us through physical health.
There’s an idea out there known as “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”.
It essentially argues that human growth is like a pyramid. We have to complete one level of needs in order to grow as people.
The bottom level is known as “Physiological Needs” and details thing such as a person’s need to eat, drink water, sleep, be clean, etc. Then the pyramid moves up into more complex needs such as safety, companionship, esteem, etc.
The entire idea is that in order to be the best people we can be, we need to take care of our base needs.
Students should know how to take care of themselves physically by eating right and exercising, but also how to maintain a strong emotional balance and holding positive mental fortitude.
A slip in any of these health factors creates a situation where a student cannot function at their highest level.
Wyoming has a rough connotation tied to it as a state with tenuous issues of mental health and emotional troubles. I won’t call on any specific examples out of respect for those who suffered with this, but it’s clear somewhere in the system we are not doing enough to help them fully.
The university needs to implement some sort of mandatory class that brings students in and gives them every possible chance to succeed.
I know another required class is not exactly something students are writing down on their Christmas Wishlist.
However, this class needs to be experienced by as many students as possible and having it be required is the mechanism needed to ensure that experience is as wide spread as possible.
This class does need to focus on the simpler aspects of physical health, but also the somewhat complex ways to maintain and improve mental and emotional health.
More importantly, these classes need to educate students on what to do when these sections of health inevitably run into trouble that may make them decline.
With college life being as strenuous and troubled as it is, it is important students now how to keep themselves okay and make sure they can get back to it if possible. Hence, the need for a class that at least gives an introduction to these important lessons that most students will not experience otherwise.
