By Garima Prabhakar
As put by a proverb seen too often: “A high IQ can get you a job, but a low EQ can get you fired from it.”. And indeed, this couldn’t be closer to the truth. In reality, whether it be high school or at the local nonprofit, emotional intelligence and social skills aren’t only crucial, they’re essential for navigating through the challenges we meet face-to-face every day. After all, we as humans base our entire existence around social networks and successful communications. Not only that, many people can attest to the fact that skills like knowing how to set up a smart budget are more important than knowing how to solve for the width of a river using the law of cosines. So how can we make sure we learn both the academic and practical necessities in the real world?
Social emotional learning (SEL) is the act of learning social and emotional skills– these skills are almost always integral parts of our lives– such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and responsible decision-making. These important aspects are what allow us, as human beings, to communicate effectively, engage face-to-face with the people around us, and ultimately, achieve what we want. These skills seem like a no-brainer that should apply in every student’s education, but only recently these ideas have gained momentum in the education community. Indeed, students that have undergone SEL are about 50% more likely to graduate high school and have a full-time paid job by 25, and they’re two times more likely to get a college degree. SEL is beneficial to both schools and students alike, increasing school reputations, as well as a student’s ability to succeed; SEL is about as important as academics, if not more in the real world.
SEL has been implemented everywhere– in the form of mindful minutes in the health classroom, all the way to yoga and mindfulness classes in gym. However, taking a deep breath isn’t the only way to make sure students can communicate effectively and accurately. SEL can and has been integrated in the classroom in everyday activities; teachers encourage students to take another perspective, or encourage meaningful discussions that analyze the why behind a person’s stance or response—instead of the strict logistics. And this emotional part of the social-emotional learning has been indirectly well-integrated in everyday activities in the classroom– from analytical essays in English class to DBQs looking at why Andrew Jackson was the way he was in history.
But looking back at what a student needs to be able to successfully navigate his or her way through life, initiating empathy and effective communication isn’t enough. Some of the key aspects in the “social” part of social-emotional learning seem to be missing in the curriculum. Two of the key ingredients to effective social-emotional engagement are self-management and responsible decision-making skills. But many times, the main way to address these aspects are often through building up emotional intelligence and awareness. However, this isn’t the only thing that will contribute to responsible decision making. Empathizing with your neighbor who has undergone a robbery won’t help you with your own finances, and won’t tell you that you have the right to stop a police officer from searching your home, just by accusing you of robbing the house.
These aspects are just as important to being able to make responsible decisions and being independent. With around 48% of adults aiding with their adult children’s living expenses and 41% of adults aiding with their adult children’s transportation expenses, financial independence and decision making is important. Moreover, knowing your rights, their limitations, and their controversial aspects are big and important factors in decision making and proper communication, and therefore social-emotional learning– they don’t fall too far from the social-emotional tree. As 74% of consumers relying on social media for their buying decisions, and as much as one in three Americans can’t identify their first-amendment rights, being educated on these skills are probably just as important as learning science or English. They tie intimately into the SEL characteristics we see everywhere, all the way from mindfulness to writing an essay on a different point of view, and they should all be included as a part of social emotional learning tactics in the classroom as well. This can be done by including morals and ethics classes and frequent opportunities to teach important social skills, as well as what we have a right to (and what we don’t) as Americans. Teachers and students can take this opportunity to inform and learn about important skills needed to survive in the social world.
In the end, SEL is a necessity in a student’s academic experience. Effective communication, social skills, emotional intelligence, and responsible decision-making skills are essential parts of being able to operate in the world, and are equally, if not more, important than academic excellence. However, social-emotional learning should not only include emotional intelligence, but also teachings in practical, decision-making skills. Schools should offer ethics classes, discussing our rights, accepted morals, and real-life skills that cannot be offered by academic and IQ-oriented classes, in addition to integrating generic SEL techniques such as mindfulness and yoga. Because after all, making sure emerging adults know their way around society socially, emotionally, and of course, academically should be a given, right?
Town Crier 