Mental State of Students
The unbalanced mental state of students around the globe is causing a stir.
In England, studies have shown that as many as 40 percent of all students are dealing with mental health problems, and levels of anxiety are more than twice as high among students as among non-students.
A recent study in Beijing discovered that more than 16 percent of students there are troubled with psychiatric problems, and 28 percent of college sophomores displayed symptoms of depression and anxiety neurosis.
In America, a recent poll indicates that 10 percent of the country’s college undergraduates have been diagnosed with depression; demand for psychiatric counseling has skyrocketed; and a record number of freshmen carry a history of eating disorders, substance abuse, therapeutic needs and taking of medications.
In each case, “experts” fail to pinpoint the real cause of the problem. Britain’s problem has been attributed to busy schedules and student debt. The situation in China, according to experts, is “very often the result of personality defects, which are normally ignored by teachers and parents as long as the students get good grades” (Xinhua News Agency, Dec. 11, 2002). It is clear that a missing element in these students’ education is how to live happy, balanced lives.
Worship of money and focus on commercial skills has resulted in materialism in education. Good grades and performance have been equated with overall success. But modern education fails to educate the “whole person.” Worldwide, parents and colleges fail to teach students how to live. This results in broken spiritual and physical laws—producing unhappiness and despondency.
True Education provides knowledge of the actions and attitudes that lead to true happiness and balance—socially and mentally. A true education can only be achieved through the acquisition of spiritual knowledge, taught in the pages of God’s infallible Word—knowledge that will soon cure the world of its mental ills and will cover the Earth “as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9).
