Giving Compass' Take:

• Colin Seale, writing for Getting Smart, discusses strategies for school leaders to implement that prioritize the social-emotional health of students by teaching them soft skills and relying on school counselors for support.

• Are these strategies easily replicable in other schools? How can districts account for school counselor shortages? 

• Read about why the future of education depends on social-emotional learning. 

In 2018, there was a school shooting once every eight days, leading many to question what role school counselors could have played in helping to prevent these tragedies. But it is hard to imagine how school systems can adequately support the needs of students who in 1 out of 5 cases struggle with mental health issues. Couple this with the fact that we have a nationwide shortage of school counselors, counselor-to-student ratios well above the recommended limits and alarming cuts to school counselor budgets leads to a clear conclusion that we are not prioritizing the social-emotional health of our students.

So here’s a thought: let’s start looking at school counselors as essential resources for equipping lifelong learners for the future workforce. It doesn’t take much to realize that high-quality counseling for all students can play as an important of a role for 21st-century readiness as a rigorous curriculum and Career & Technical Education programs.

Because the “soft skills” employers are begging for is frankly, well, hard! The global workforce our students are entering requires students to communicate across lines of difference, so don’t be surprised if “knowing how to disagree without being disagreeable” ends up as a skill put on resumes of the future next to mastery of programming languages and technical certifications.

No time to teach empathy? Accept the fact that you are willfully under-preparing students since we know 87% of CEOs see a clear link between empathy in the workplace and business success.

In that spirit, here are four practical tips for school systems looking to make this essential adjustment:

  • Integrate social-emotional learning into academic content
  • Put students at the center of solving their own problems
  • Let school counselors focus on school counselor issues
  • You can’t manage what you don’t measure 

Read the full article about prioritizing student emotional health by Colin Seale at Getting Smart