Giving Compass' Take:

• Jessica Bobo argues that social-emotional learning initiatives are a necessary investment and should come before academic learning.

•  How can we support teachers promoting social-emotional learning practices?

• The Every Student Succeeds Act is already supporting social-emotional learning programs. 

While teachers are in classrooms to impart academic skills and content, we are also crucial caregivers, especially in the early grades. I know many teachers who’ve had to ask for donations of toothbrushes and similar items to fill in gaps in standard caregiving before they can even start teaching.

Both academic and anecdotal evidence makes clear that if students are not secure in the basic needs of food, clothing, and safety, they cannot be attentive or motivated to achieve academically. This is why investments in social and emotional learning should come before academic ones.

SEL initiatives can mitigate those consequences by awakening social awareness, creating positive relationships, and illustrating responsible decisionmaking, putting kids in control of their bodies and words. In so doing, it gives them the confidence to be active and engage in challenges — skills they will need throughout their lives of learning, work, and play.

In a classroom environment as open and supportive as mine was, my students surely felt comfortable enough to engage in their academic work with confidence, without fear of judgment, ridicule, or failure. I’d wager more than lunch money that those children felt empowered, even bold, in their studies, knowing that their teacher and their classmates genuinely cared about their success and well-being, both inside the classroom and out.

District mandates or state standards that require teachers to initiate academics on the first day, for example, can impede the important work of developing a prospering, emotionally supportive classroom learning community like I had years ago. Ideally, creating new standards to help grow social-emotional intelligence in students in the early grades, alongside academic standards, will shape our future leaders.

Read the full article about social-emotional learning by Jessica Bobo at The 74.