Social-Emotional Learning

[Anonymous]

Hallelujah! The new superintendent Joshua Starr is committed to bringing social-emotional learning into MCPS. He discussed it at a MCCPTA mtg tonight. I'm skeptical as to how or when this will be done given the old-fashioned and test-results-driven school culture that exists here, but I am hopeful that some humanity will be brought in.

[Anonymous]

I saw this too. The idea is good but honestly, I think he's such an arrogant pr**k. I feel he took this important subject and used it as an opportunity to lecture us on how to parent our kids.

I am all for humanity and getting rid of test-results-driven schools but I will believe it when I see it. I wish he would focus on high quality education, challenge and enrichment -- that's his job.

[Anonymous]

Social-emotional learning IS high-quality education. I read an article about high schools in Norway, where they lead the world in high school achievement scores, and the article reported that something like 60% of the school day was spent on social activity among the students. Cramming facts and procedures and putting huge amounts of pressure on kids is not high-qual. education. Teaching kids the value of knowing and respecting themselves and others, listening to oneself and not conforming to the crowd, social problem solving, getting along in groups, setting personal goals and learning how to work toward them is high quality education. You can have a social-emotional learning environment that still has strong academic achievement and interesting intellectual and enriching avenues to pursue but the social-emotional piece makes school truly a rich experience.

[Anonymous]

Agreed. My son's teacher had the kids set goals for themselves at the beginning of each quarter and write them down. This has proven to be extremely effective for him and his classmates so far this year.