Mental health is an issue that people don’t normally see as important. Some think that people who have mental problems are just weird and not trying hard enough to overcome them. However, this thinking is old and outdated. Mental disorders are commonly found throughout the United States. There are different categories of mental disorders. The disorders are categorized by the severity, the part of the brain that it effects, and the physical appearances that it portrays. However, just by looking at the outward appearance of someone is not a way to determine if they have a mental disorder or not. If you have a mental health issue there are places you can go to get help. One example of these places is your local branch of Unity Point Clinic. They have resources to help people dealing with a mental illness whether it be sever or mild.

Bullying is a big issue today. When people think about the person who does the bullying they generally picture a large kid who resorts to physical violence to intimidate other children to do what the bully wants. However that image is not exactly correct anymore. What I mean by that is that there are still those types of bullies but there is now a new image. The new image is a person sitting at one computer and writing terrible things about another person, while pretending to be someone else. One instance that I was told about a few years ago was a girl who had met a boy online who made up his entire life story and got her to trust him with everything. This was actually not a boy it was a girl from  her school pretending to be a boy who then used this fake person to bully the girl into doing what every the bully wanted. The bully posted an inappropriate picture of the girl and spread secrets that she had told the “boy” in confidence. Awareness needs to be raised to young kids who are just starting to use social media. They need to be aware of what could go wrong. People need to crack the case on bullying, if the bullies are confronted this won’t happen as much. We need to teach kids that stranger danger also applies to the internet. This is a message that has been shared with high school and middle school students; however, I feel that all ages need to be aware of internet dangers. 

Literacy is important to better oneself and his or her understanding of the written word. Literacy, for those who are unaware, is defined as the ability to read and write. Reading and writing are basic skills for anyone who has gone through school. Literacy has become an area of high need in schools, because more students coming into schools have not been given the proper upbringing in the fact that they are unable to read and write at the level they need. The methods that are used to teach these basic building blocks are outdated. Teachers need a new approach to teach this life skill. To look at this from a statistical standpoint, about 14% of U.S. adults cannot read, and approximately 19% of high school graduates cannot read (literacy statistics).

 

 Works Cited

"Mental Health & Substance Abuse." UnityPoint. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.

"Statistics." NIMH RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2014

"Bullying and Suicide." - Bullying Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2014

"Welcome to Bullying Statistics." Bullying Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.

“Teaching the English Language Arts.” Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts. London: Routledge, 2011. Credo Reference. Web 9 Jan. 2014.

“Illiteracy Statistics.” Statistic Brain RSS. N.p., n.p. Web. 09 Jan. 2014.

“How to: 5 Ways to Help Functionally Illiterate Adults.” Good. N.p.,n.d. Web 09 Jan. 2014.