SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
& MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS
The Importance of SEL in Education
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is vital for human beings to thrive in different areas of our life such as school, work, community, life. The skills it helps to develop include: self-awareness, responsible decision making, relationship skills, social awareness, and self-management. In that way, it supports children to understand their emotions and manage them, work in teams, solve conflicts, settle goals, among other things. Unfortunatly, although of the positive outcomes there is still a gap in the implementation of SEL in schooling systems. Factors such as staff shortage, financial resources, lack of resources, outside judgements limit the learning of such important skills. SEL transforms the relationship of children with the school, themselves and others. Thus, having it in the curriculum would be an asset to an education that focuses on the learner's growth.
“In 15 years we could have an entire new generation of young people that would have more empathy, be more compassionate and kind”
As explained in the video, the impact that SEL can bring are lasting for our whole lives. For example, the increase in a child's social competency increases by twice their chances of getting a college degree, 54% more likely to finish school and 46% more likely to get a full time job. As well as, it reduces the chances of the child of being arrested by early adulthood and consuming illegal drugs. However, SEL does not only create a positive change for ourselves rather that change can escalate to a worldwide one where if implementing SEL from childhood education, generation after generation will become more respectful, have more empathy, and learn to solve problems peacefully. With those skills, our world will become a more humanized place.
Why Mental Health Matters
"The latest available estimates suggest that 15 per cent of children and adolescents aged 10-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean -around 16 million- live with a diagnosed mental disorder" UNICEF
"One in six U.S. children between the Agees of 6 and 17 has a treatable mental health disorder " AAFP
If there is one element that has been underestimated by schooling systems around the world is mental health, especially when the conversation turns into children mental health. A common prejudice is that children cannot suffer from mental alhetsh illnes because “what will they suffer from”. However this is false and because children mental health is not as visualize as other age groups. Thus, it is more important to bring the necessary care to it. The previous conversation —a silent one— about mental health needs to shift to be a more open discussion where all the interested parts such as parents, educators, children, government, and community are involved. There needs to be an active engagement to tackle the lack of access to mental health care and be able to break the stigma around it.
"I have suicidal thoughts as a regular occurrence. For two days of school year, on Monday and Tuesday, I was unable to move up off the couch was like I was paralyzed by my depression" -Jonathan Meyer
"I get really sad and then I start to shake, I start to run out of breath and then I start to cry like I can't take it [...] but until I don't sleep is not going to go away" -Kid from Chile
"I did my project on bipolarity, I wanted kids in my school to know that even kids can have mental illness"
-Kensie Meyer
Mental Health Awareness needs to be an essential component in the schooling systems because when there is an untreated mental health issue it affects greatly the student not only in the academic aspect but also in the personal one which interferes with their ability to continue their development. Awareness inside schooling systems can help for an early identification, prevention, and intervention since children spend almost eight hours in schooling setting everyday through Monday and Friday. This amount of time spend inside schools makes it a necessity to adequate them to support students in the best way possible when facing mental health challenges.
The Connection
The connection between Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Mental Health is that one can influence the other in a positive way. Having SEL in our lives can lead to the development of good mental health since the former promotes the latter. According to the University of British Columbia SEL can help children to develop skills such as “understanding and managing emotions and behaviors, solving personal and interpersonal problems, building healthy coping strategies, and developing self-esteem and confidence, help children cope with difficulties and build positive relationships, increasing their resilience so that they are better able to deal with life’s challenges.” Additionally, SEL build a comfortable environment for everybody where every child can feel part of the group and feel safe by being who they are which greatly increases the mental well-being of the child.