Learning Beyond the Classroom: A Student Teaches Peers About People With Mental Illness

This essay describes an educator's desire to teach her nursing students that individuals with mental illness are people and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. During an informal discussion, she learned that one of her junior-level students has used art to educate nonnursing peers about the struggles that people with mental illness face every day and how to treat them with respect. The essay begins with a description of what the teacher hopes to convey to her students about people with mental illness. This is followed by a student essay that describes how she used photography to educate her nonnursing peers about the challenges that people with mental illness face, inviting them to act in ethical ways. In the end, both the teacher and the student are enlightened.