At Natrona County High School (NC), teacher Jared Swenson instructs students on the scientific study of mental processing and behavior. This is also known as Psychology, a class that many students do not know the purpose of. A recent unit touched on the ideal of teenage romance, which provides relevance to students, considering the Valentine’s holiday. Swenson’s unit on this topic allows students to “…examine their view of love in close relationships and whether or not their love is authentic.” Swenson uses Valentines as an open opportunity to explore the ideals of love within a teenager’s day to day routine.

Valentines is a yearly tradition for many students in a relationship, whether that be a simple friendship, a new relationship, or a romance that has been going on for many months. Every year, NC provides something in the way of celebrating this holiday: songs, flowers, candy bags, or even notes to give away anonymously. But, these little gifts can’t always be what Valentine is about. Valentine is more about celebrating the relationships people have and remembering to take the time to cherish such a thing.

Julia Lopev (a Junior at NC) says that teaching students how to get past the “high school heartbreak” is more than reason enough for this examination on teenager’s view of love. Many students have gone through break ups that have hindered their ability to focus on much of anything – much less class. This could lead to one’s grades dropping. NC’s Psychology classes focus both on learning how the mind works for many scenarios (criminology, love, illnesses, addiction, etc.) and how the field of psychology addresses such things.

In Swenson’s basic psychology class, topics touched on include common issues such as depression, anxiety, OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder), and more.

As Swenson puts it, “Psychology is a great class to have at NCHS because it’s about life.”