Why are we as teachers asked to do so much when it comes to mental health?

Title basically says it all. We do in-class social skills lessons, we are supposed to teach coping skills, we are supposed to give individualized coping skills, we’re supposed to be trained in crisis (CPI), we’re supposed to give tools for emotional regulation, we’re supposed to create a safe space. We’re already expected to be a mentor, a friend, a dad, a mom, a tutor, a therapist, a counselor, a nurse, a baby sitter, and a babysitter. I’m really starting to think the majority of the country has no idea what teachers do on a daily basis. How do you feel about all these extra expectations, do you like them? Do you think they help? Do you think we should go back to just teaching content? Do you think we should be given more training in mental health or do you think we should stop being expected to be in charge of student mental health all together? Honestly any thoughts would be great.<br><br><br>Edit: I agree that mental health is an incredibly important issue that is really killing some of our kids. I do think that we should be teaching some of these things, but I guess my issue is more that schools are asking us to do this in the classroom. Maybe if we had a resource like a mental health class similar to a gym class (1 period a day 5 days a week) where kids can learn these skills and have a person in the room who is trained in mental health (counselor or school psych). I think teachers should be trained in mental health, but I really don’t think this is our job. I also think that if you’re going to ask us to so this, we should get hours cut from other subjects or lower class sizes.