EQ In Education

"I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness: Gas chambers built my learned engineers, children poisoned by educated physicians, infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot and buried by high school and college graduates. So I am suspicious of education. My request is: Help your students become more human. Your efforts should never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmans. Reading, writing and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make children more humane." (source)

"Discipline"

Notes from visits to schools around the world

Stories

The Snarling Teacher

Note Passing

Democracy

Punished for Laughing

Mario

Lawrence Kohlberg's ideas on Discipline

Quotes

Resources, Book notes, Recommended Reading

Links

Recent Items

April 5 - Love, Laws, Education

April 4, 2006 - New Links | My beliefs about education

Dec 22 - High school values, according to a teen in Canada

Nov 25 - Education in Peru

May 14 - An Inspirational Student

May 13 - Pics of student police in Peru

May 9 - Education in England

May 6 - A letter from a teenager in England

May 5 - Budi - A story about teaching a homeless boy to use the computer

May 5 - An example of the failure of education. A conflict between two teen females.

March 25 - American school principal retaliates against student

March 22 - "Youth Training Schools" ( Legal abuse of teens in the USA)

March 22 - A list of requirements for teachers in my school

February 14 - What they didn't teach me in school

A consultant in the UK wrote this letter to a colleague,

Susan,

I recently did a study of UK Head Teachers. There were 109 Heads in my sample and I looked at emotional intelligence alongside a number of health parameters, school size and type of school.

As there are different ways that MSCEIT data are scored, I am re-running the results as the emotional intelligence scores were much lower than expected.

(Actual letter posted on EMONET, May 11, 2004

As I see it, there are many reasons to develop a child's natural emotional intelligence. For example:

EQ News! is a publication for those interested in elementary education which I helped organize and for which I wrote several articles. There have been three issues published.

Presently, the other two are available in printed form. I may put them on line at some point in the future. The contents are as follows:

If emotional and intellectual life are one, the same, there is no conflict. If we keep these spheres separate, we set limits on both education and intelligence.

Stanley Greenspan, The Growth of the Mind: And the Endangered Origins of Intelligence

In the old days, corporal punishment was one of the primary means used to control the classroom. The trend for most developed countries now, however, is to forbid the use of corporal punishment. (With the possible exception of the USA -- see the "Teacher Protection Act" articles on www.nospank.net, which discuss legislation making it easier for teachers to hit children) I strongly support this ban on hitting children as a step in the right direction. A serious problem though, is that nothing has been offered to the teachers to replace corporal punishment. The teachers have simply been left stranded without adequate training or preparation for this change. In the absence of the threat of physical pain, many teachers have found it nearly impossible to teach.

Though the best teachers rarely seem to find it necessary to punish or even threaten to punish their students, the change in policy on corporal punishment has contributed to what could be called chaos in many classrooms and schools. Another contributing factor is the decline in respect for authority in general. I suspect this decline is due to the following three factors. First, there is less fear of school authority, and fear is often equated with respect (though I believe they are quite separate concepts and feelings). Second, it may be that adults, through their own behavior, are simply not earning the respect of children. To the extent that adults are perceived by children and teenagers as insincere, hypocritical, dishonest, manipulative, controlling, etc. the level of respect which they receive declines accordingly. Finally, the belief that someone is owed respect simply because they are older or are in a position of power seems to have largely become outdated.

For whatever reasons, teachers have consistently told me they spend so much time trying to control the class that there is little or no time left for teaching. In England, I was recently told, teachers can not even expel a child from the school, since it is believed that a child or teen who is not in school becomes even more of a liability to society. When I asked if there were other places seriously disruptive students could be sent, this former teacher (who left teaching precisely because of the problem of control) told me that there used to be alternatives, but the funding for them was cut.

I don't have the all the answers, but I do believe the starting point in all relationships is mutual respect. Where there is an imbalance of power, such as between teacher and student, I believe it is most helpful if the one with the most power, the teacher, first tries to meet the needs of the students. This requires knowing what those needs are. For example, if a child were to come to school hungry, it would be helpful to all if the teacher were aware of this and did something about it. The teacher who knows his or her students will know who is coming to school hungry, just as he or she will know who is coming to school with severe unmet emotional needs, i.e. emotionally starving. Ideally, this teacher then acknowledges the need, accepts it, and does not judge the child for having the need. Instead, the teacher simply tries to help the child meet the need. In this way a teacher earns the respect and cooperation of the children. Erich Fromm wrote in fact, "To respect a person is not possible without knowing him; care and responsibility would be blind if they were not guided by knowledge." (Reference)

Teachers are ill-equipped, though, to get to know a student at the level of identifying his or her unique emotional needs. They are also ill-equipped to meet those needs. These deficits are partly due to the lack of training and partly due to the lack of priority by the educational system itself. Another problem is that many teachers, themselves are so preoccupied with their own emotional needs that it is nearly impossible for them to be in touch with the emotional needs of their students. Moreover, even if the teacher is aware of the child's emotional needs, the schools are not designed to support the teacher in helping the child in this area.

Still there are things the teacher can do. Fromm's statement supports the importance of the teacher getting to know each student on an individual basis.

Elsewhere on this site I talk about respect, how it is earned, how it is measured, etc. I also document an example of a teacher who used a discussion of respect very effectively to help her manage the classroom. My suggestion to teachers is that take a look at these sections then give my ideas a try.

A thought on "disruptive behavior" - if a student were to start bleeding, would the teacher call this "disruptive behavior"? If the seats the students are forced to sit in were electrifried and sent shocks to the student, causing him or her to scream out in pain, would this be considered disruptive behavior? But for the student who "disrupts" the normal class, the student is typically in some kind of pain.

Pain from boredom, pain from needs not being me. Why have the teachers chosen to call a student's pain and needs "disruptions"? Maybe the teachers like to label students and behavior as "disruptive" because the teachers themselves are actually the most direct cause of the pain and the unmet needs. For example, when a student needs to get up and move around and the teacher won't let him. In this example, I would say the teacher is causing the student pain. By labeling the student disruptive when he tries to move to stop his pain, the teacher avoids taking the responsibility for causing the pain. If a student is bored to the point where it starts to become painful, so he tries to make the class more interesting by talking, telling jokes etc., are we to blame the student for this. too?

I don't believe this is helping society. This pain and these unmet need cause problems outside of the school building

Below are notes from and excerpts of a telephone conversation I had with a schoolteacher. I recorded the conversation with her permission so we could both learn from her first experience at testing some of my ideas about using mutual respect as the basis for managing a classroom. In this case the class was a group of second graders in a Florida public school. The teacher I spoke with was taking the place of the regular teacher, so it was her first day with these children.

As far as I know this is the first time students have ever been asked how much they felt respected by their teacher on a scale of 0-10. The results are extremely encouraging for those who believe it is possible to teach children without resorting to threats and punishment. I would like to see someone design a formal research study modeled after this example, and I would be happy to cooperate in the project.

After that she told the kids that later she would ask them how much they felt respected by her, and she would tell them how much she felt respected by them. They said "okay."

So around 10 in the morning she stopped class to do the respect survey. She told them to hold up their fingers to show how much they felt respected by her. She said 10 fingers means the highest respect and two closed fists would equal zero.

To her surprise all the children held up all ten fingers. When she asked why, they gave her specific reasons such as "You don't write our name on the blackboard like the other teachers do when we are talking." "You come and help us when we have questions." "You don't yell at us or say you will send us to the principal." "You helped so-and-so when he couldn't understand something."

The she asked if they wanted to know how much she felt respected by them. They said "yes." She said about a six. They looked very disappointed and they asked why it was so low. She told them that sometimes people were talking when she was talking or when others were asking questions, etc. She said "Do you think you can raise your scores?" They gave her an enthusiastic "Yes!"

Then she asked "Now how much do you feel respected by your classmates?" She got a wide variety of scores and asked the kids to explain their scores. They said things like "Well, so-and-so was pulling on my hair even when I asked him to stop it."

After lunch, she took another survey. She still received all tens. The students still had a wide range of scores for each other, but generally the scores were higher. When she told them she now felt respected by them an 8, they looked proud of themselves, but still were not satisfied. She asked if they thought the could raise it even higher, again she got a very enthusiastic "YES!"

She said from that moment on till the end of the day she had one of the quietest, most well-behaved classes she has ever taught. She said the children were self-monitoring each other. If someone talked too loudly, the others would motion to them to be quiet. She never did another survey because there was no need to. The children could sense how well they were doing, and it was clear they had risen to the occasion.

How Children Fail, John Holt (Based on a journal of classroom observations. His conclusion is that children fail because they are "scared, bored and confused.")

Punished by Rewards, Alfie Kohn (Very heavily research-based. A bit difficult to read/very academic. Basic conclusion is that all forms of extrinsic motivation are inferior to intrinsic motivation. Even rewards fail to motivate in the long run.)

Trying Freedom, Richard Meisler (A college teacher's experience in giving his students more freedom.)

"The role of the teacher shifted from being a guide to being an "agent" of the ruling classes. Through using repetition and rigid instruction, teachers train students to obey, to learn passively and to compete against each other. Like a soldier, or a policeman, the teacher uses discipline, which manifests in a constant demand for silence and a refusal to allow pupils to dissent, as the tools to shape classroom culture and student behavior."

From "The Handbook of Alternative Education", by the National Coalition of Alternative Schools (NCAS) Contacts: (505) 474-4312; Jerry Mintz, 417 Roslyn Rd. Roslyn Hts, NY 11577, Phone (516) 621-2195

See also Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish, the Birth of the Prison", and John
Taylor Gatto's "6 Lessons of a School teacher."

Abstract: Daniel Goleman's bestselling book 'Emotional Intelligence: Why It
Can Matter More Than IQ' has influenced many school systems in the US to teach
such values as kindness and people skills. Proponents of emotional learning
curriculum say its helps children both academically and socially.

Patrice Edwards teaches second grade at Beecher Elementary, a public school in
New Haven, Conn., where most of her students wear maroon-plaid uniforms.
That's the first indication that something unusual is going on. Here's the
second: on a recent September morning, as the 25 children in Edwards' class
sat cross-legged on the floor passing a big blue ball around, they whispered
compliments to each other. "You're a nice speller." "You've got pretty hand-
writing." "You are a good artist." A soothing calm settled in the room. For
the moment, traditional academics were nowhere to be found. Edwards says the
kids are learning deeper truths. "We are teaching them values that are
universal," she says. "Being kind to a person--that's something all people
need to do."

This is school? Kindness is an ancient virtue, but the idea of formally teach-
ing six- and seven-year-olds to give compliments in an inner-city public
school is brand-new. In New Haven all students from kindergarten through high
school take part in the district's Social Development Program, which weaves
"emotional learning" exercises--like the ball-rolling game--into the fabric of
an ordinary school day. School officials say problem-solving and
stress-management skills are as essential as literature and long division to a
'90s education. "We believe it needs to be comprehensive, just like science
and math," says Merrie Harrison, a seventh-grade teacher. "Every child, every
school, every year."

As many as 700 school districts across the country have instituted programs
that aim to nourish students' souls as well as their minds. And while the best
teachers have long taught kids to behave and play fair, they now have science
on their side. In 1995 psychologist and New York Times science writer Daniel
Goleman published Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ,
which contends that children's ability to recognize their own emotions,
empathize with peers and deal with crises--their "emotional quotient," or
EQ--influences their life chances as much as native intelligence. The book,
now a paperback best seller, has had a catalytic effect. Rutgers psychologist
Maurice Elias, a pioneer in emotional education, says he fields endless calls,
E-mails and faxes from interested educators. "There is credibility now given
to taking time in the school day to carry out this kind of work," he says.

For many teachers, this new focus is welcome. The forces driving students to
distraction have never been stronger. Says Goleman: "If you are a kid who
wants to avoid depression or violence and not drop out, academic topics will
have nothing to do with it." Marylu Simon, school superintendent in Highland
Park, N.J., says many children arrive at school "simply angry from some situa-
tion that has happened at home. It affects their ability to come into the
school, sit down at their desk and be ready to learn."

So Highland Park sixth-graders are taught to act as cool-headed "peer
mediators" who swoop in to resolve tussles among their peers. At Hazel Valley
Elementary School, outside Seattle, misbehaving students go to principal Bar-
bara Walton's office not for a scolding but for a questionnaire that asks them
to identify the classroom problems they caused and to generate solutions.
"It's nice to have discipline that's problem solving and not just punishment,"
Walton says.

Some parents bristle at such squishy, New Agey techniques. At its worst, they
say, emotional learning verges on therapy sessions for third-graders. "I don't
want my children talking about my family's problems in the classroom," a
Highland Park father said at a school meeting. But EQ gurus such as Professor
Roger Weissberg of the University of Illinois in Chicago say students in the
best programs have shown not just "more positive attitudes about ways to get
along with people" but also improvements in critical-thinking skills. And in
New Haven, teenagers say they're witnessing less violence, toting fewer guns
and having sex later. Admittedly, better behavior does not ensure academic
achievement. But American schools will take good news where they can find it.

-- End --

InfoTrac Web: Expanded Academic ASAP Int'l Ed..

    Full content for this article includes illustration and photograph.

   Source: Time, Sept 29, 1997 v150 n13 p62(1).

    Title: Teaching feelings 101. (teaching emotional intelligence)
   Author: Romesh Ratnesar

Schools turn beautiful children into ugly adults.

Steve Hein

I had a major struggle; I had a teacher’s certificate and realized for the first time in my life
that I was not an educated person. I was this person who had gotten
wonderful grades and knew nothing, who had very few skills.

Grace Llewellyn
Author of "Teenage Liberation Handbook"

The education quote is often attributed to Haim Ginott. From my research though it appears Ginott was not the author of it, he just had it in one of his books.

Editor's Perspective	Interview with Peter Salovey
What is Emotional Intelligence?	School Profile of the Month
What Have Studies Found?	Consultants Corner (S. Hein)