In a big city like Newark, New Jersey, a small school is making a significant impact by focusing on the emotional health of its students. St. Benedict’s Prep, a school run by Benedictine monks for over 150 years, has been able to change lives by using simple emotional health intake forms to identify and address the emotional needs of its students.
The school gives every entering student a customized assessment to determine which students need immediate help and which can be kept on a watch list. This approach has been successful in helping troubled teens and has contributed to the school’s high academic standards and strong graduation rates.
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According to Ivan Lamourt, St. Benedict’s associate headmaster and a certified school psychologist, assessing every student this way costs little more than the price of the checklist itself and provides powerful insights into what students are feeling. The assessments challenge the school to “grow to meet the needs of those kids,” he said.
A Focus on Emotional Counseling
St. Benedict’s Prep was founded in 1868 and was a long-time pillar of the community. However, as the city’s racial makeup changed, enrollment declined, and in 1972, a majority of the monks voted to shut the school. But a few monks stood fast and determined to reimagine what a prep school could be.
The school reopened a year later with just 89 students and has since grown substantially. It now includes elementary and middle school divisions and, since 2020, a girls’ prep school division. Total enrollment is about 1000 students, and most students are Black or Latino.
Daily attendance hovers around 95 percent, and just about every graduate goes on to college. Many of the students come from disadvantaged or dysfunctional families, and the school has a counseling center on its property staffed by qualified psychologists and licensed school counselors.
Group Counseling Sessions
The school offers group counseling sessions, which are another way St. Benedict’s gets the most out of its guidance budget. Each weekday features different groups and themes, such as the “Blue Man Group” which discusses depression, and “Unknown Sons” which delves into families in which parents are physically or emotionally absent.
These sessions allow younger students to mix with and learn from upperclassmen, discovering ways to talk about intensely personal issues that city kids rarely discuss outside this kind of setting. In one “Unknown Sons” session, students discussed how they felt being compared to someone else, and the responses were deep and emotional.
A senior boy took the lead and helped one young man acknowledge that hearing his mother say he’s just like his dad is a real put-down because he knows she hates his father for having walked out on the family. Several other students said they experienced the same thing, and it hurt the way they saw themselves.
The school’s approach to emotional counseling has been successful, but it may not be easily replicable in other schools due to budget constraints and guardrails in public school districts. However, tacking an abbreviated emotional checklist onto freshman screening or experimenting with an “Unknown Sons” group are feasible options.
Anthony DePalma, a former education reporter and foreign correspondent for The New York Times, believes that any steps that get ahead of emotional issues in teens can result in huge gains. His book, “On This Ground: Hardship and Hope at the Toughest Prep School in America,” tells the story of St. Benedict’s Prep and its approach to education.
The school’s focus on emotional health intake forms and group counseling sessions has contributed to its success and could be a model for other schools to follow. By prioritizing the emotional needs of its students, St. Benedict’s Prep has been able to provide a supportive and nurturing environment that allows its students to thrive.
On a typical Wednesday morning, the school’s counseling center is bustling with activity as students attend group sessions and one-on-one therapy. The center is staffed by two qualified psychologists and a handful of psychiatrists and licensed school counselors.
In the 2020-2021 school year, the school reported a 95 percent daily attendance rate, and 99 percent of its graduates went on to college. These numbers are a testament to the school’s commitment to providing a well-rounded education that addresses the emotional and academic needs of its students.
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