Lets’ look at Parenting and Social Emotional Learning and how there is a disconnect between school and home environments.
Social and emotional learning is crucial to the healthy development of young children. However, there seems to be a disconnect between what the school is offering in SEL programming and parenting at home. Parenting through the ages is about providing a loving, supportive and nurturing home. How we do that varies between races, cultures and generations. Yet, day to day parenting is similar no matter what home you enter. Undoubtedly, schedules, meal times, activities are the center of a household. Thus, our current chaos in this country reflects the disconnect between the teaching of social and emotional learning skills in schools and mirroring them at home.
What Prepares Us For Being A Parent ?
First, parenting for the first time is a daunting experience. I read books but nothing prepared me for the emotional roller coaster it took me on. I learned all the developmental milestones, proper nutrition and importance of having a schedule. Reading how to emotionally raise my newborn was not a priority. Second, little did I know that this was the most important ingredient in teaching my child to become a human being. Thirdly, not much has changed in this formula since I was a new parent almost 50 years ago. We know change takes a long time but with the presence of technology, change has a different perspective, or does it? How do we bring this change about since it is 80% the reason our children succeed.
How Does Parenting with Social Emotional Learning Come About?
Awareness is the key to incorporating social and emotional learning into your parenting routine. Where does this awareness need to come from since until now education and parenting connected in only one domain, academics. This is cycle is not easy to overcome. It needs to become prevalent in the area of early childhood education programming. Early childhood educators promoting SEL in their classrooms and sending home the lessons to be modeled there. What a difference this will make in the raising of a new generation of children with emotional intelligence. College classrooms including this in their curriculum.
Parenting and Social Emotional Learning
Awareness is a start. New parents need to know what the skills are that build social and emotional development. Let’s use technology to bring this awareness about and giving parents training through videos with the ability to ask questions and receive support. I was lucky to have a mentor that advised while in college. Children with disabilities most of all need to be socially appropriate. Though not the same language, it certainly put me on the right track in raising my disabled son. With my son, it had absolutely nothing to do with academics. He became the most EQ Smart person I know and succeeded beyond my wildest expectations. What a life we had together as a result! Yes, EQ raises IQ and is definitely 80% the reason we are successful in life.
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