A PLACE FOR SOCIAL
EMOTIONAL LEARNING
Who does not want a child to have success with academic achievement,
positive behavior, and healthier life choices? On the surface, self-
awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills are indeed essential for
success in school, work, and life. Too often good ideas and solutions
get lost in poor implementation, and teachers often are not trained
specifically to address some of the issue’s children face.
Social-emotional learning (SEL) has become arguably one of the hottest
topics in education and the most controversial to critics. Christina
Cipriano, the director of research at the Yale Center for Emotional
Intelligence and a research scientist at the Child Study Center at the Yale
School of Medicine, identifies five competencies children should master:
self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills,