Maintaining healthy relationships with others is an invaluable skill in high school and beyond. However, despite its importance, mental and emotional well-being is frequently overlooked from an educational standpoint. Especially in recent years, several people have pushed to introduce new curriculum into IHS to address this issue.
The strongest of voice of support is Dianea Kohl, a Cornell graduate and psychotherapist of 25 years. Working with dysfunctional relationships for so long has made Kohl highly aware of the difficulty that many have in expressing their feelings, and she believes that high school is the best time to teach about these issues. “Having a healthy, loving relationship in your life is a fundamental desire of every human being. But we have no place to teach it,” she said in a recent interview. Since the 1990s, Kohl has pushed for adding a relationships course at IHS, but has faced some difficulty from both limited awareness and the administration.
Several questions arise with the concept of a new course. How would such a class be taught? Wouldn’t many topics already be covered through the school’s mandatory Health course? One easy and well-tested solution would be through the Relationship Foundation, a non-profit organization that seeks to “build a safe, more harmonious society by establishing Social and Emotional Learning as a core component of the educational process.” Originally founded in NYC, the foundation established the relationships course in 16 schools throughout the city and has since expanded nationwide. Class curriculum and materials would be provided for by the foundation, covering a large range of skills including collaborative communication, empathy, and identifying healthy relationships.
As for the Health course question, Kohl admitted that while Health does provide a basic overview of relationships, the semester-long course was much too short to provide meaningful assistance. “Ideally, the high school would provide multiple courses to be taken throughout, with each year focusing on a specific aspect. Self-concept for the first year, relationship skills for the next, parenting for the third, and so on,” she said. A 1991 course description submitted by Kohl outlined a four-year plan that would be mandatory for all students, but the idea never branched out: the course was taught for three years with limited success. “The students were interested,” Kohl said, “but they just didn’t have time due to other classes…. There were too many constraints.” Later test runs, including a semester course carried out at LACS, also provided promising results, but Kohl wanted to make it clear that IHS was her primary goal: “I want this course to affect as many people as possible. And IHS has such a large population; it should be the main focus,” she said.
Kohl’s sentiments seem to be echoed by several in ICSD. In particular, Superintendent Luvelle Brown has frequently stressed his goal of creating a “culture of love” within the district. “We are working to create a personalized experience for each student so that they can achieve…. If I am a great superintendent, it is because I am a great dad first,” Brown said. “My goal for the next six years is to make sure that the culture of love is firmly embedded throughout the organization and community.” According to the Ithaca Times, support for the course has also come from staff members at IHS, including teachers James Slattery, Kelley Purcell, and Bradley Benjamin. A petition was even started at one point to generate interest, but it failed to gather momentum.
The relationships course has encountered some degree of resistance. Meetings with IHS Principal Mr. Trumble and Chief Officer of Academics Liddy Coyle in recent years have brought few changes. While the administration has largely agreed with Kohl’s plans, they nonetheless held off from implementing the course, or even trying a pilot run. “They kept on telling me, there has to be interest from the students,” Kohl said. “And I get that, but it should be… these teachers and staff that set an example for these kids.” Disappointed with the administration’s lack of initiative, she has nonetheless continued to press the issue. “People are afraid of these feelings, don’t know what to do with them, and students are reluctant to share,” she said. “We need to change that.”