Lower School Division News: Feb. 20, 2025

By Dr. Debra Sass, Lower School Division Head

Dear parents and families,

Over the past eleven years, I have become very familiar with the typical Winston student profile.  Sadly, many of our students come to us with dangerously low self-esteem.  They are likely to be self-critical and frequently tell us that they don’t feel like they are as good as other kids.  They also tend to focus more on their failings than on the things they do well.  It goes without saying that when they have a poor self-image, they often lack self-confidence and doubt that they can do things well.  While many factors impact Winston youth, I’d like to focus specifically on social media because it has the potential to impact our learning community in such a detrimental way.

This is nothing new.  The effects of social media continue to be a topic of discussion and concern for many parents.  Social media has become an integral part of daily life in the digital age, especially for the younger generation.  Platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook provide endless content streams, encouraging connectivity and creativity, but they also present significant mental health challenges, especially for younger users with learning differences.

In a school like Winston, we need to be especially cognizant of the many ways that social media can affect our children’s self-image.  It’s imperative that they not be subject to unhealthy comparisons with others, unrealistic body image issues, and traumatic cyberbullying.  Our young people are likely to live with constant feelings of inferiority and discontent because their self-perceptions don’t match the ideals presented in various forms of social media.  Equally important, when social-media identity competes with true self-image for emotional territory, our kids often suffer painful conflict and develop understandable escape behaviors.  

Conversely, we recognize that social skills are a critical element in helping our students succeed socially, emotionally, personally, and academically.  The skills and behaviors that help kids join in conversations, collaborate with peers, develop lasting friendships, self-advocate when they need help, and so on are indispensable.  Indeed, many students come to Winston with speech, language and communication needs.  In these cases, the students may have great difficulty with social interaction.  Because social interaction skills are vital in response to the shifting demands in all areas of their lives, we make socialization a priority at Winston.  However, we do not encourage social-media as a means of reaching that end.  Coupled with the risk of mental health challenges, social-media can be harmful when it replaces time with family and friends.  Some opportunities to build social skills just cannot be replicated online.  In brief, we mustn’t allow dangerous social media platforms to pervade the lives of our students.  They are already grappling with the challenging task of understanding themselves and their needs in relation to the world.

“Let the eye of vigilance never be closed.”