Do High Schools Need SEL?

Do High Schools Need SEL? - Sophie Simonian (River Dell High School, Ninth Grade)

Beyond academic learning lies the field that is as and maybe more important than any of the subjects you learn in school. This field is Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). It is as important as academics, because it helps students develop life skills, and it is more important, because a socially and emotionally intelligent student is also more successful academically. You can get good grades, and you could even be a straight – A student, yet you could spend your entire high school experience without the chance of learning important life skills necessary for successful work and personal life. These skills include emotional regulation, teamwork, critical thinking, empathy, problem - solving, communication, and more. School districts should be required to include Social Emotional Learning lessons in their curriculums in order to help students continue developing and strengthening essential life skills. This paper is going to illustrate the importance of SEL skills in both personal and professional life and prove the necessity of integrating its education in high schools. 

Every human experiences stress on a daily basis. While optimal levels of stress are necessary for healthy development, extreme levels of stress can be detrimental to psychological and physical well-being. In a TedTalk, an SEL specialist, Caige Jambor (n.d.), explains, “Toxic stresses, without adult support can have long lasting effects on a child’s brain development, immune system, higher likelihood of alcoholism, mental illness, and shorter life expectancy.” He suggests, “Adults need to see, recognize, and understand a child’s coping mechanisms to have the right approach, and to be able to offer stronger coping tools to the child.” Schools should have both support systems and educational plans to help students and to teach them how to cope with stress. This could become a strong tool for maintaining psychological health. According to Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), psychological well-being is understood as “inclusive of the constructs of positive emotions (happiness and/ or contentment) and the development of purpose, while also fostering positive relationships with others.” Daniel Goleman (2005) mentions that “people with high IQs can be stunningly poor pilots of their private lives.” 

In a video titled “4 Ways to Help Teens Strengthen Social and Emotional Literacy” by Edutopia, the authors (Chen, et.al., 2023) share 4 simple approaches towards the development of SEL skills in teens:

Giving students frequent opportunities to identify and vocalize how they feel. 

Help and encourage students to identify their strengths.

Creating space for mindfulness through breathing exercises and visualizations.

Integrating SEL into academic content to grow emotional literacy in students.

Although, many argue that implementing SEL may take away time from academics, the four strategies mentioned above don’t take much time from curriculum, and help ensure that students do not feel alone, but rather seen or understood, and build a space where emotions are identified and validated. This support will not only help them succeed at a given subject, but also in life. Mark Brackett, Ph. D. (Brackett, 2020) emphasizes, that “if we can learn to identify, express, and harness our feelings, even the most challenging ones, we can use those emotions to help us create positive, satisfying lives.” Schools should not come up with strategies to control student behaviors, but rather teach them how to manage their emotions in a safe and healthy way. When students feel like that can open up and express their feelings, they will not only begin to trust the school, but also feel supported, instead of controlled. To do this, schools should consider implementing the four SEL – oriented strategies mentioned earlier in the text.

To ensure a positive and satisfying life, schools need to make sure that their students are prepared for both their personal and their future professional life. That being said, this paper posed the question: what skills are needed for career success? In an article titled: The 10 Top Skills That Will Land You High-Paying Jobs by 2020, Melanie Curtin (2017) writes, “Robots can do a lot, but they still can't read people the way other humans can (at least not yet). Employers will place a strong emphasis on hiring those who are aware of others' reactions, as well as their own impact on others.” Emotional intelligence is what distinguishes human beings from robots. The report shows that 36% of all jobs across all industries will require complex problem-solving abilities as a core skill by 2020. Problem solving involves creativity, responsible decision making, relationship skills, social awareness – all this can be taught at school so high schoolers are well tuned for future success. Doesn’t all this mean that educational institutions must bring up humans, and not savvy robots?

According to World Happiness Report 2023, more and more people have come to believe that our success as countries should be judged by the happiness of our people. This idea let the author of this research question whether the success of the school system should also be judged by the overall happiness of students. The Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning Research and Practice (Durlack et.al., 2015) suggests that “Adolescence is a time of personal and social development that requires a sophisticated repertoire of social – emotional skills for healthy adjustment. Teenagers often face considerable difficulties negotiating the biological, cognitive, and psychological changes associated with puberty.” Humans are complex beings, possessing cognitive, social, and emotional skills. These skills allow us to process information, solve problems, make decisions effectively, experience a wide range of feelings, and connect with others emotionally, fostering and maintaining meaningful relationships. With this in mind, there is one logical question: if schools are considered to be educational institutions, how can they only choose to teach cognitive - academic skills and overlook all others? In addition, if schools aren’t able to teach adolescents the social skills they need, students will proceed to lead their entire lives, disconnected from others around them. This can lead to a lonely life lead by unhappiness, emotional and physiological diseases, drug abuse, suicidal thoughts, etc. 

In Permission To Feel, Mark Bracket Ph. D (Brackett, 2020) how negative and positive memories impact our decision making. He states, “When we recall happy moments from our past, we’re likely to make decisions based in optimism and confidence. If we’re remembering negative things, we’ll feel skeptical and pessimistic and decide things differently.” He finalizes with his explanation by saying that “emotions cloud our judgement.” Highschoolers are already going through natural physiological and psychological stress that originates from puberty and hormonal changes. Their mood swings already shift their judgement and decision making. If to crown it all a teenager is experiencing elevated stress levels and negative emotions that originate from school, their health is already at stake.

In attempt to understand students’ current social and emotional state, and to receive their perspective in order to prove that High Schools should integrate SEL in their curriculums, a survey was shared with students. In the survey, high school students from New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, and California were asked a series of questions through Microsoft and Google forms in order to identify their current level of stress, connected with school, social life, and their overall well-being.

To summarize the results of the survey:

77% reported stress levels on/above average.

61% are not getting enough sleep.

44% are lacking sufficient emotional support.

26% expressed the need for more emotional support.

50% reported their ability to identify their emotions on/below average.

42% think they don’t have enough time to build/sustain friendships.

39% reported feeling sad half of the time, while 12% - all the time. 

47% reported feeling angry more than half of the time, while 14% - all the time.

56% feel happy less than half of the time, while 9% never do.

To the question as to whether they think that high schools should help students develop their Social and Emotional skills, 53% of students answered “maybe,” 39% reported “yes,” and only 8% said “no.” 

To conclude this research, Social and Emotional learning is a crucial component of education, that equips students with essential life skills necessary for success in both personal and professional life. It also provides students with important tools to cope with stress and navigate through challenges. 

High schools should prioritize SEL to foster development of socially and emotionally, as well as academically intelligent humans, and successful professionals of tomorrow.