The Importance of Emotional Competence in the Classroom

What is emotional education and why is it important?  Social / emotional competence is the ability to comprehend, manage, and express the social and emotional aspects of one’s life in ways that enable successful management of life tasks, such as learning, forming relationships with others, daily problem solving, and adapting to the complicated demands of development and growth.  Social /emotional competence also includes self-awareness, impulse control (self-regulation), and the ability to work cooperatively with others. Social and emotional learning is the process through which children develop the skills, mind-sets, and values necessary to acquire social and emotional competence.  But how can schools help develop and encourage the emotional competency of the children attending? 

I found one program online that attempts to accomplish this.   It’s called the CARE for kids program and like most SEL (social and emotional learning) programs, it strives to create a safe, supportive environment where kids feel cared about, not only by the adults within the school, but by other students in the school as well.   This program gets children up out of their seats each day, gets them moving, and teaches them (through various games and activities) how to get along with each other.  Taking time to teach children strong social skills and the importance of treating each other with respect pays off not only in better time management for teachers (less time stopping class due to behavioral problems), but also in better academic results for the students.  Schools and teachers need to make academic goals a priority, but they would be wise to devote significant energies to programs such as CARE for kids, which are designed to develop their emotional and social skills as well.