PREPARING CHILDREN for the future is one of the most important tasks any society can set itself. And while the acquisition of skills and knowledge are the fundamentals of an education system, there is a growing body of research which suggests that children need a parallel set of social and emotional skills to help them develop key life skills of resilience and adaptability.
In many cases, these skills are learned naturally through everyday life at home and in school. But, what happens if they aren’t? Canadian social entrepreneur Mary Gordon says the absence of these social and emotional skills results in bullying and disruption and also impedes children’s learning. “Children’s emotional intelligence is now known to be a predictor of positive life outcomes such as good mental health, successful relationships, academic and career success and civic responsibility and engagement,” she says.
Gordon was in Dublin recently to give a classroom demonstration of her internationally recognised programme, The Roots of Empathy. The programme is based on the simple premise that children can learn empathy by observing the close interactions between a parent and baby. While here, Gordon introduced two classes of school children in Tallaght to a mother and her six-month-old baby. The children sat around a mat on the floor watching and chatting about the baby with her mother and Gordon. They smiled, giggled and asked lots of questions as they watched the baby grab and play with soft toys, pull herself along the mat and gurgle with joy.
By Sylvia Thompson © irishtimes.com
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