For the rest of the semester, my topic will be about emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence has to do with your ability to identify, engage with, and manage emotions of your own and emotions of others. Also known as emotional quotient, it incorporates knowing how to label emotions and using emotions to guide your behavior and thought processes. While the kind of intelligence that people normally think of is very important, it is also critical to emphasize various other types of intelligence. People, adults and especially kids, need to understand themselves and those that surround them in a manner that allows everyone to coexist in a supportive and thoughtful environment. If people are more aware, they would be able to work through their own feelings and also be able to cheer up or calm down others. Many are unaware of what emotional intelligence even is and most of the time, this is not through any fault of their own. The education system and society has simply not taught children and others what emotional intelligence is and how to strengthen your own emotional intelligence.
This semester, I am calling for schools to increase initiatives to educate children on emotional intelligence. Starting with elementary schools and continuing through the university level, kids should understand what their emotions mean and they need to be taught how to comprehend the emotions of their friends and family. By improving the way people interact and understand each other, society will see a boost in empathy among people of all ages. Emotional intelligence education could also begin to tackle the bullying issue. Often times, kids bully each other because they lack the ability to recognize the effects of their actions on others' emotions. Bullying leads to very prominent side effects such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal tendencies. Mental health issues could also be aided or even limited with an introspective awareness of oneself. In teenagers specifically, mental health has decreased and it has become an epidemic across the nation. By devoting a portion of time during the school day to discuss and validate the feelings of the students, the students will start to develop a deeper appreciation and understanding of how to deal with emotions. Districts could also create a program, much like D.A.R.E., that spends the day fully demonstrating and instructing various methods kids can use to identify, engage, and manage their emotions. The overall goal of such a program would be to nurture students in a manner that allows them to thrive in society through a strong background of emotional development.
For enacting a program, I'd recommend you look to a specific level to focus on, such as elementary, high school, or college level. Each level has its own institutional structures, and they're not always receptive to being told what to do. How you look to implement this is important--how will it be funded, who will lead these courses, how will it be integrated into the larger operation of the school? Fortunately, there's a lot of other people's research you can build off of and point to, rather than have to build it all from scratch.
ReplyDeleteI'd also warn you against the DARE comparison. It's not a program that has done particularly well in achieving its goals.