The pandemic might bring more changes to schools: But this time it’s good news!
This week’s post comes to us from Swati Shelar, an educator, designer, entrepreneur, and Stanford Alumna.
It’s been nearly a year since Covid-19 swept across the globe. For those of us teaching or studying anything, that means nearly a year of being online instead of being in school. Could we ever before have imagined that there would be classes graduating soon, that have never even been in the same space? Instead of exchanging looks and notes and fun in the classroom, all we shared were a few cramped pixels of our confused faces (if your video was turned on). Let’s not even start on what it was like sitting alone all day every day and trying to focus. You know. I know. This kid knows.
If you’re an optimist, you may have scavenged a few bright spots this year. One of the things I feel grateful for as an educator who works on SEL (social-emotional learning) is that people worldwide can finally see that young people, just like older people, need a life beyond the information that the five-to-seven subjects schools prescribe. To truly grow and learn from the world, to face the challenges that life will inevitably offer, we need to start building mechanisms inside ourselves and between each other that are strong and supportive. In this rapidly changing world, we can be thrown challenges and given an excess of stimuli that are unlike anything our ancestors had to face. Unless you are this guy,
picking up life after major (or sometimes even minor) challenges can throw you off track. Just the way the body can be trained to be strong, and strong bodies wear less when subjected to pressure, the mind can be trained too. Often SEL is confused with therapy or psychological counseling - but that’s like equating medicine with exercise. Everyone needs exercise to keep fit so that they can lead healthy lives. Similarly, SEL is used to exercise our emotional responses and our social skills. The science supports this: children who practice and build up resilience are more likely to face adversity better as adults. The regular rhythms, the ups, and downs of life, do prepare each of us in unique ways to face the world, but SEL helps us get good at it.
So are schools the best place to teach SEL? And as a student you may wonder, ‘Why are you adding another subject for me to study, Ma’am?’ Well, School was meant to be a space where we could take a little time to understand the world before being thrown into work. A Stop and Look before you Go. School comes at a time in our lives when we can simply experiment with responding to emotions, creating relationships, and contributing to things we believe in without large consequences. Most importantly, going to school is every child’s right. It is the place and time that can have the most impact on us all. It just makes sense to include knowledge about leading a happy and healthy life in it.
If there's one fundamental idea at the core of SEL, it is this: every human can keep learning to be a better human. It can be supported with decades of research in psychology, sociology, and anthropology, and can be made relevant to every section and age in society. If children can learn about atoms or robotics or artificial intelligence today - surely learning about finding their own path and being peaceful in the world is not unimaginable.
Certainly not for the Dalai Lama! Or even in fact, for several governments and institutions around the world, that have successfully launched SEL curriculums into everyday schooling. To take an example in our country, the Delhi government introduced a ‘Happiness Class’ in state-run schools in 2018.
Though this was a fledgling program, it showed an acknowledgment of the pressure that the school system puts on students in India today. It was backed by political will, a rare commodity, to make some changes in the system. It also inspired other states and the vast network of private schools in India to look seriously at this concept. It is also a common practice in many private schools to have child psychologists on their academic teams. They work with children to provide counseling, but also to conduct SEL sessions for all students. You may be surprised to know that these are not only the schools that cater to the most privileged classes in society but also some middle-class schools striving to do better. The deeply saddening statistic of a daily rate of 28 students committing suicide in India reveals a country in desperate need of any support system we can manage to create. Social-emotional learning has the potential to bring about positive changes here.
All this background leads us to an all-important question: How does one teach SEL, and what’s a good way to learn it? For some, the first step is research. The Teacher Foundation, Bangalore came out with a comprehensive report and Framework for SEL competencies in India in 2020 - the iSELF (Indian Social Emotional Learning Framework). This is a solid foundation and an invaluable resource for curriculum design and instruction around SEL. Some organizations focus on administrators and teachers to sensitize and help them incorporate SEL into all their subjects and practices in school. Others work with children, teaching SEL through drama, games, crafts, art, and other hands-on activities. These work as scaffolds to understand the somewhat intangible concepts of SEL. As is blog reminds us every week - often the best way to approach heavy topics is through playful means.
Stay safe and happy weekend to you!
One gap that we at Jump Design are attempting to work on is that students have very little context about what SEL is and why it’s important. We’re developing a textbook/workbook on SEL for students starting with grade 5. Wish us good luck and we’ll get it to your school soon! :)
Swati
Swati Shelar has worked in the field of design and education since 2014 in various capacities. She acquired a MA in Education from Stanford University with the Learning Design Technology program in August 2018. Prior to this, she worked at Magic Crate and grew to love children's educational products. She also has a B.Des in Product Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.