There is a lot of controversy surrounding social and emotional learning, which is often due to misunderstandings, assumptions, and fear. Dr. LaDonna Braswell, who is an exceptional principal at North Parkway Middle School in Jackson, TN, specializes in community building and social and emotional literacy. Could the implementation of social and emotional learning in schools lead to a future with less violence? According to real-life experience AND research across social sciences, the answer is a resounding YES!
Transcript:
Why Schools Need Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)
"Those people that feel as though social emotional learning does not have a true place in a school. I challenge them to visit a school today.
I challenge them to visit and I challenge them to talk to some children that have some real concerns, that have some true worries. Things are going on in the homes of every kid. Are we really looking at developing tomorrow's generation? If we truly do not give them that social and emotional platform to share, to learn?
Are we saying it's okay to bottle up their feelings and don't deal with them? Then you start to see the outbursts that we see all over the world where the violence increase because you were not taught to release those emotions in an appropriate way. That's why I think our world, for the sake of words, we've become mean and schools is the one place that we can start to see a shift.
If we take it seriously, if principals, administration, team members, teachers, community, if we take that piece serious and look at the child as a, as a valuable piece to society, we can start to, we can, we can start a revolution just within schools banding together to say, this is what school will be. School will be a safe place for children to express themselves, for children to do hands-on activities for children to be children."
-Dr. LaDonna Braswell