I'm delighted to share with you matters close to my heart, ideas that I find stimulating, and some practical tips and leads that you might find useful. At the core, of course, you’ll find emotional intelligence. But my interests also go far beyond; you’ll get a taste of that range here. PLUS news you can put to use in your life or work – or in both. Please join me each month.
Initially, we set out to talk about Social Emotional Learning (SEL) at a time when millions of kids have been home, attending school online and missing out on valuable time with their peers. But we quickly realized COVID is far from the only thing kids and educators are grappling with—racial inequity, trauma, isolation, social unrest, and overworked parents are a significant part of the equation.
Social-Emotional Learning: Emotional Intelligence for Kids
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has."
That thought from Margaret Mead, a noted anthropologist of the last century, keeps coming back to me as I reflect on today’s movement to help educate children about the fundamentals of emotional intelligence.
Called “social/emotional learning,” or SEL, these programs teach kids from kindergarten to 12th grade the fundamentals of self-awareness, handling their emotions, empathy, and social skills like collaboration – plus making good life decisions. There are now hundreds of SEL curricula packages used with millions of children worldwide. And yet it all began with a handful of people united around an idea. I was one of them.
Turns out the SEL programs work. A meta-analysis of more than 270,000 students, half taking SEL with their standard academics and the other half just taking standard courses found that SEL boosted positivity (liking school, feeling someone at school cares about them, good class attendance) by 10%; dropped negativity (like misbehaving in class, bullying, fights) by 10%; and improved academic achievement test scores by 11%.
You will be learning more about SEL in my next blog on the same topic. Think of it as emotional intelligence for kids.