The blog article below from the Los Angeles Times and published in today’s ASCD Smart Brief, releases information from a national poll on children’s health from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital where parents rated public schools on the support children receive with behavioral, emotional or family problems. The report highlights that “About one-third of parents give primary schools an ‘A’ for providing support for kids with behavioral, emotional or family problems; less than one-quarter of parents give secondary schools an ‘A’.” The report concludes: “In the current economic climate, some stakeholders argue that school funds should be restricted to instructional services. However, drastic cuts to student support services may, in the end, work against instructional objectives, if behavioral or emotional problems interfere with children’s ability to learn.”
As most educators know, all learning is linked to emotions, which is why LifeBound’s programs are designed to boost academic, emotional and social intelligence to promote student success in school, career and life. One of the counselors we work with contacted us just last week to tell us about a sixth grade student in her class whose teenaged brother had committed suicide over the holidays. The sixth grader, along with his classmates, has been attending LifeBound’s People Smarts class, which focuses on becoming emotionally intelligent. On the assessments that we provided, the counselor saw what this student wrote in response to the question: What do you value most right now? He wrote, “LIFE (in all caps) itself!!!†And added, “I wish I could bring my brother back.†This counselor said she was so thankful that our program helped her have a window into this child’s internal world, and that the faculty knows how to better reach out to this student. Additionally, she credits our program for giving her and the students the requisite vocabulary and other tools for effectively communicating about how this incident has affected them and their school community. For a review copy of this book, please call the LifeBound office toll free 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com.
- Since emotional intelligence (EI) is essential for school and life success, how can we integrate programs that teach EI into academics?
- How can we ensure that student success and transition programs are in place in every school, that serve to both support the struggling students and help train other students to become peer leaders?
- How can we help counselors become leaders in their schools and in their districts?
ARTICLE:
Parents grade public schools on how well they emotionally support children with problems
January 20, 2010 | 10:29 am
Los Angeles Times
by Tammi Dennis
In the latest national poll on children’s health from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, parents got a chance to rate how well public schools support children with behavioral, emotional or family problems. Most schools didn’t get top marks.
The report highlight: “About one-third of parents give primary schools an ‘A’ for providing support for kids with behavioral, emotional or family problems; less than one-quarter of parents give secondary schools an ‘A’.”
In other words, about two-thirds of primary schools and three-fourths of secondary schools were found wanting in some fashion. On the bright side, only a fraction were given an “F.”
Here’s the report.
It concludes: “In the current economic climate, some stakeholders argue that school funds should be restricted to instructional services. However, drastic cuts to student support services may, in the end, work against instructional objectives, if behavioral or emotional problems interfere with children’s ability to learn.”
Still unclear is just how teachers and administrators would grade parents on the same “emotionally supportive of kids” scale.
This blog article is at www.latimes.com
It is a decent idea.