Nearly 2 1/2 years of a deadly global epidemic, our country’s children are in a mental health crisis that we have failed to adequately address.
Students, parents, health professionals, and educators all point to isolation and disruption of daily life as the root cause of misery.
Even the US Surgeon General has warned us about this worrying and widespread mental health crisis. In some cases, experts have declared that the epidemic is causing trauma-like symptoms.
The epidemic has also affected the social and academic development of students. About 60 percent of parents in Massachusetts say the epidemic has damaged their young child’s learning. Statistics show that third graders across the country are scoring significantly lower in math. About 77 percent of educators have noticed a change in negative behavior among elementary students.
That’s why it’s time for socio-emotional learning, or SEL, programming, which we support at The New York City Public School Network The Urban Assembly.
We can no longer wait for our leaders to realize that SEL programs are the best tool for educators to tackle the growing mental health crisis and learning disabilities simultaneously.
SEL provides students with basic mental skills and abilities to support their mental health needs. It encourages academic success when things are challenging.
SEL benefits data is clear, yet SEL programming remains inaccessible to most students in our country. The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, describes the current approach to SEL programming as an “add-on” “luxury” that is only offered to students after they have been academically successful.
This approach misses one of the most important benefits of SEL: it can help students achieve academic success.
Research studies have shown that SEL programming can increase academic success by 11 percent, and that SEL can have a positive effect on social behavior and relationships, as well as reduce emotional distress.
We can no longer wait for our leaders to realize that SEL programs are the best tool for educators to tackle the growing mental health crisis and learning disabilities simultaneously.
Related: 10 Ways to Attract Schools Through Social-Sensitive Education Activities
The Urban Assembly is committed to making SEL programming accessible to all students, regardless of their background or academic performance. We are extremely proud that our programming serves as the framework for SEL across 1,600 public schools in New York City (funded by the New York City Department of Education).
Our SEL method helps students develop confidence and self-awareness while promoting general social competence. It helps students develop reasoning skills through a variety of social and emotional situations. These tools often go beyond academic education.
This is being done through the Strong Resilient NYC initiative, the largest SEL initiative in the country
We emphasize prioritizing students’ voices and SEL in special education and as a way to help our students respond and recover from epidemics.
As we expand our efforts to increase SEL equity, we’ve recently organized our annual symposium to share ideas with the wider community and demonstrate how SEL works and how it not only benefits top students.
Simply put, SEL is not a prize or a luxury, it is essential. As teachers, it is our duty to support the well-being and success of our students. We owe it to our children to give them nothing less.
Brandon Frame is the director of socio-emotional education Urban Assembly, Inc.A school support agency and consulting firm in New York City
Produced by this piece about social-sensitive education Hatchinger report, A non-profit, independent news organization focusing on inequality and innovation in education. For registration Hatchinger’s newsletter.
