Congressman Adam Smith, D-Renton, visited Emerald Park Elementary on Kent’s East Hill last Friday to see first-hand the school’s implementation of social-emotional learning (SEL).
The Kent School District uses the Second Step program to teach students about empathy, self-awareness, social problem solving, social awareness, perspective taking, and self-regulation.
Smith sat in on a SEL lesson in Amanda Deal’s first-grade class, where students learned to manage their anger by using belly breathing and positive self talk.
Before the classroom visit, Smith met with Kent School District officials including Superintendent Calvin Watts and Joan Cole Duffell, executive director of the Committee for Children – a nonprofit focusing on safety and well-being of children through SEL – to learn about the importance of incorporating SEL into the school curriculum.
SEL teaches students lifelong skills, Duffell said.
“One of the most of important areas for them is collaboration, the ability to understand and take perspective of somebody who has grown up in a completely different country from you, a completely different experience form you and how do your respect those differences,” she said. “That’s going to be not only important for kids to get along in school, but is going to be critical for their workplace experience.”
Smith said it is important for schools to teach students these skills.
“No matter what the family setting is the dominate factor in the children’s lives, in terms of what develops their interest and character, becomes the school because that is where they are,” he said. “Those are their peers. That’s who they interact with and no matter what you do as a parent, what happens in the school is big to shape the values to a certain percentage.”
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BELOW: Emerald Park Elementary teacher Amanda Deal leads her first-grade class in a belly breathing exercise last Friday. Through the Second Step Social-Emotional Learning curriculum, Deal’s students have learned to use techniques, such as belly breathing and self talk, to calm down when angry. Photo Credit: Heidi Sanders, Kent Reporter
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