By Alex Costello
"Schools so often are focused on the academics, and we really make an effort to look at the whole child and look at their social needs and emotional needs and academic needs, and help them grow in all those areas," said Bruce Misher, the district's assistant superintendent. "We've always had a focus on the social and emotional needs of kids."
The Social/Emotional Learning, or SEL, guidelines are being suggested to school districts by the state, and it should have official guidelines out soon, most likely by early 2009. For now, the guidelines are still suggestions, but ones that school districts may want to take to heart.
"A lot of the research shows that if you help the kids with their social and emotional end, you'll get stronger and improved academic performance," Misher said. Of the new guidelines, he added, "They're not making them mandatory yet, but the state is realizing the importance of a focus on these areas because it's good for kids. It helps them become more productive citizens as they exit schools."
Misher went on to explain
the new guidelines, saying, "Social/Emotional Learning is a practice by which we want kids to begin to recognize their own emotions and begin to manage them effectively, have empathy towards others. Obviously, a lot of good decision-making, developing positive relationships and avoiding negative behavior, and being ethical and responsible."
One of the guidelines' goals is to make children feel like they are part of a community when they come to school. The Oceanside Middle School asked an artist to come in to help teams of students design murals. Every student in the school contributed at least one brush stroke - some many more - to the murals. They also helped come up with their themes.
"And that's the type of things we've done so that kids don't just come to school," said Bob Fenter, principal of the middle school principal. "They come to their school."
Students are also encouraged to be more in touch with their own emotions, as well as to be more empathetic toward others.
SEL is not a program or a course, so there is no time during class set aside for it. "You don't want to do it as an isolated subject," said Misher. "You want to do it in context. So a lot of literature lends itself to kids expressing emotions, becoming more aware of their own emotions, and relationships and handling situations and decision-making."
Many of the district's current programs, like the high school's Government/Economics Mentoring (GEM) program, fall under the SEL guidelines. In the GEM program, 150 to 200 high school seniors who take the government/economics class volunteer to be mentors to incoming freshmen. The meet once a week or so over the course of the school year, and the seniors help the freshmen adjust to life in high school.
"In all of our buildings, there are just so many things to build communities and make them inviting to kids," said Misher, "so that kids feel not only welcome, but they feel a part of the fabric of the school and they feel it's a second home."
The SEL approach does not just apply to extracurricular activities. The guidelines are being incorporated into the classrooms as well. "Across the board, K through 12, we're looking at curriculum that lends itself, mostly in social studies, because there's lots of lessons of history that can be taught there," Misher said. "And a lot of it's in English Language Arts, in the literature kids are reading and the discussions that come out of the stories that they're reading."
Eventually, district officials say, the SEL guidelines will spread to every aspect of the school experience. "It's probably things that are much more commonly elementary level, historically," said Fenter. "And we're learning through these SEL standards that these are things you need at every level. Kids need to feel invited and welcome in a community."
Oceanside is already ahead of the curve, whether or not the state eventually decides to mandate the SEL guidelines. And as the district moves into the future, its leaders hope that the guidelines will help students perform even better. "I think [the next level is] to try to create schools where kids feel comfortable, feel invited, see it as a second home, and are stakeholders in what's going on in the school," said Misher. "That school's not being done too them, but that they're part of the process."
Comments about this story? ACostello@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 207.
