Recent headlines have sparked a heated debate in education and parenting.
According to a story in The Times, 75% of families have allowed their child to take time off school for mental health reasons.
Some commentators have framed this as a decline in discipline – a generation of “woke” parents who would simply have been told to “get on with it”.
Others have questioned whether children experiencing mental health difficulties are really struggling, or merely “feeling sad”.
Yet many educators, parents and mental health professionals see something very different: a growing awareness that children’s mental health matters, and that ignoring it comes at a cost.
As an educator, I believe this conversation deserves far more depth than it is currently being given.
Mental Health Is Not a New Problem. We’re Just Talking About It Now.
Children have always experienced anxiety, overwhelm and depression. What has changed is not the presence of these challenges, but our willingness to acknowledge them.
One of the most troubling pieces of evidence comes from long-term research showing that:
Suicide rates among children (aged 8–17) in the US peak during school term time and fall during summer holidays and Christmas breaks.
This does not mean schools cause poor mental health. But it does tell us that the structure and environment of traditional schooling can intensify underlying struggles.
If we dismiss this as weakness, we miss the opportunity to ask a far more important question: How can education better support the whole child?
The Danger of Silence
Recently, a student shared something that stayed with me.
When they spoke about feeling sad, they added quietly: “My dad said we don’t talk about things like that.”
That sentence speaks volumes.
We teach children how to maintain physical health (through exercise, nutrition and rest). Yet mental health is still treated as something private, uncomfortable or even shameful.
When children are discouraged from talking about how they feel, they don’t stop feeling those emotions, they simply stop sharing them. Education should be a place where conversations about mental wellbeing are normalised, not avoided.
Personalisation as Prevention
One reason online education models are gaining traction is their ability to respond to individual needs. Interestingly, 31% of parents now say they would support a hybrid model, combining learning at home with time in school.
At Elea High Online School, we are actively developing Personal and Academic Development Plans and Portfolios, designed to support both learning progress and personal growth. These plans reflect a simple belief: students are not identical, so education shouldn’t be either.
Personalisation allows educators to:
- Adjust pace and workload
- Reduce unnecessary stress
- Identify emerging challenges early
- Build trust and open dialogue
Small changes, such as flexible schedules, reduced pressure around conformity (including uniforms) and a focus on wellbeing, can have a significant impact.
Mental Health Days: Avoidance or Awareness?
Critics argue that allowing mental health days encourages avoidance. But this assumes that pushing through distress is always the healthiest option.
Rest, reflection and support can improve long-term outcomes. A child who feels heard and supported is more likely to re-engage with learning than one who feels ignored or dismissed.
The goal should never be to remove challenge from education, but to ensure that challenge is manageable, meaningful and supported.
Moving Forward
This debate isn’t about being “soft” or “strict”. It’s about being responsive, informed and compassionate.
We should be asking:
- How can schools support mental wellbeing?
- How do we create environments where children feel safe to speak?
- How can flexibility improve educational outcomes?
Education works best when it develops confident, resilient young people. Not just exam results.