Social and Emotional Learning

The Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning has been one of the organizations working to promote social and emotional learning in schools. Schools recognize that soft skills are a necessary component to students being successful beyond school. Elementary schools now have career readiness in addition to college readiness, and career readiness is not just job training.

One of CASEL's strengths is that it researches and uses the data to support its initiatives and programs. Data-driven research is the standard in education research now and it is a welcome and overdue development.

In addition to communication and interpersonal skills, one of the tenets of SEL is civics education. While always have political overtones in our current culture, civics is learning about how to be a good citizen in your country as well as on your block. Keeping one's sidewalk shoveled of snow is not just a neighborly thing to do it's a safety measure and typically supported by town ordinances.
The Brookings Institution sees SEL as an important component of civics education.

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