EELS Should Be the Class Mascot

SEL, short for Social-Emotional Learning, has been defined and used in schools for over thirty years. Prior to 2018, however, I had heard the letters, but never really saw anything about SEL in the first twenty years of my teaching career. This was also true of nearly all of my colleagues I had asked about it. My introduction to what SEL is began on Valentine’s Day, 2018, after the horrific Parkland, Florida, school shooting that killed 17 and wounded 18 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. 

The day after Parkland happened, I was on the phone with Joe Fatheree, a dear friend and fellow teacher from central Illinois, talking about teachers not having much say about school safety, or seeing any real progress to reduce the number of school shootings and other violent acts, for decades. We were wondering what could be done to try and produce real results in helping our youth maintain control of their emotions, and generally creating safer schools and environments where kids could learn and grow more while not worrying about so much actual and potential violence too many of our students see with high frequency. As we talked with more colleagues, safety personnel, administrators, school counselors, psychologists, and social workers, and other experts who had interests in this topic, we began to hear and learn about this SEL topic in detail. I was intrigued.

Two years later, the COVID-19 pandemic began, and the world began to shut down for nearly one year. The school I worked at did remote learning and some hybrid learning during that time. Once the world began to come out of the shutdown, something became very apparent about the health of many of our students, as well as adults - the state of our mental health was largely in peril. Rates of anxiety, depression, suicidal tendencies, violent actions, and other mental health issues rose dramatically in the U.S. and around the world. Now, there was a substantial rise in mental health issues prior to COVID for nearly a decade, but post-COVID it accelerated to the point where districts all around the country began to take an interest in SEL. In my own school district, SEL became one of our four district goals. 

But something both interesting and worrisome began to happen over the last several years regarding SEL - it became politicised. Some politicians began to use language like SEL is part of the Left’s drive towards ‘wokeness’, and that SEL was a way to indoctrinate America’s youth towards a Leftist-Communist political agenda that was destroying the country (Harvard, Kansas, National Review). By 2024, at least eight state legislatures have introduced bills that would limit or ban SEL from the state’s public schools (APA, EdWeek). SEL has now become associated with wokeness, critical race theory (CRT), progressive and Leftist indoctrination programs, and so on. I wonder, though, how many of those who are making claims on either side of the issue actually understand what the core SEL ideas are when it was developed back in 1994, by those who formed the leading organization that drives SEL, CASEL - the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning.

Traditional SEL is built around five competencies, which are Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-Making. In order to attain any level of competency within one of these competencies, certain skills must be learned, practiced, and applied. One list showing skills associated with each competency is: 

 Self-awareness
The ability to accurately recognize one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior. The ability to accurately assess one’s strengths and limitations, with a well-grounded sense of confidence, optimism, and a growth mindset.

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  Identifying emotions

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  Accurate self-perception

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  Recognizing strengths

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  Self-confidence

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  Self-efficacy

Self-management
The ability to successfully regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in different situations — effectively managing stress, controlling impulses, and motivating oneself. The ability to set and work toward personal and academic goals.

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  Impulse control

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  Stress management

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  Self-discipline

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  Self-motivation

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  Goal-setting

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  Organizational skills

Social awareness
The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures. The ability to understand social and ethical norms for behavior and to recognize family, school, and community resources and support systems.

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  Perspective-taking

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  Empathy

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  Appreciating diversity

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  Respect for others

Relationship skills
The ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. The ability to communicate clearly, listen well, cooperate with others, resist inappropriate social pressure, negotiate conflict constructively, and seek and offer help when needed.

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  Communication

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  Social engagement

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  Relationship-building

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  Teamwork

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  Collaboration

Responsible decision-making
The ability to make constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on ethical standards, safety concerns, and social norms. The realistic evaluation of consequences of various actions, and a consideration of the well-being of oneself and others. How is the content being taught applied in a student’s life and in society?

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  Identifying problems

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  Analyzing situations

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  Solving problems

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  Evaluating & Reflecting

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  Ethical responsibility

I also include two newly proposed competencies: Positive Purpose, and Curiosity & Healthy Skepticism. These include vital skills we need in an age of Artificial Intelligence, and an age of mis- and dis-information. By the way, this list of skills can be added to lesson plan templates, to help keep track of what skills naturally arise and are needed/used in any lesson at any grade level! Teachers already work and use these skills everyday, but likely don't realize they're including EELS within their work with students!

On the surface, when people see these skills for the first time, it is often eye-opening to learn these skills are fundamentally what SEL is meant to expose and teach to students. Not many parents have a problem with such a skills list when they see it, and tend to insist they, of course, want their children to be strong with each skill, because these are skills necessary to navigate and thrive in life. 

I am at the point where I think we need to re-brand SEL. In fact, I’d like to rename it. We have the letters in the wrong order - let us change SEL to ELS, and call SEL what it really is and should mean: Essential Life Skills. As part of the brand, it helps to have a mascot and visual, so I’m thinking of EELS: Everyday Essential Life Skills. 

When students have exposure to and practice with applying these types of skills in everyday situations both in and out of the classroom, the benefits are impressive - and long-lived into adulthood. Studies over the last few decades have shown the following: 

• Improve academic growth and achievement; on average, 11% improvement for students who went through these types of programs;

• Significantly improves a variety of student outcomes: societal skills, academics, social behavior, ability to handle emotional stresses, attitudes towards school and everyday life, fewer behavioral and conduct problems in school;

• Improvements in a variety of student outcomes last long-term (some measured to 18 years after the EELS exposure in school);

• EELS programming and exposure beginning in Kindergarten and lasting through the schooling years of development last a lifetime - those individuals are more likely to stay out of poverty, stay away from drug and alcohol addiction, have better mental and social health, stay out of prison, and get and hold higher paying jobs;

• EELS expenses in school are paid for, and then some, after students leave the school system: there is a 11:1 payoff to the economy for those who came through successful EELS programming and exposure in the school systems - for every $1 invested in EELS, society gains $11 in returns;

• EELS in schools is a key component to reducing poverty and improving economic mobility; 

• Perception among education system stakeholders overwhelmingly feel there is a need for EELS in schools: students, parents, teachers, administrators, scientists, and employers;

• EELS are not all intuitive, but need to be taught and learned; many of the skills are based on societal norms, and need to be taught to our youngest students and continued to be presented year after year for reinforcement as societal stresses increase with age. It would be wise to consider including EELS in all teacher training programs, along with the benefits of including them in the classroom; 

• Most employers (70%) see Emotional Intelligence (EI) as an immediate, essential skill set for their employees: in an age where jobs are significantly and routinely changing or being eliminated due to technology and artificial intelligence, workers are under more and new stresses that have never been experienced in human history, and many are not able to cope and adapt mentally, emotionally or socially. 

Students who are able to maintain control over emotions are more likely to stay out of trouble, be non-violent, and find calmer ways of resolving issues with other students. They can focus better in class. They can work better and more productively with classmates, because collaborative and teamwork skills are part of the EELS. Learning about these and getting real experience and practice with skills don’t suddenly abandon a person upon graduation - they tend to remain over one’s lifetime. This is why people strong in EELS tend to be happier, healthier, and more productive citizens for life - and they tend to earn more and stay out of trouble compared to those who grew up with little or no real exposure and practice with EELS. 

One feature I like about this addresses my original exposure to SEL, which was in the name of school safety. Schools and communities where students are strong and competent in EELS tend to be safer, and kids tend to learn more. 

EELS are a MUST IN SCHOOLS, AND FOR OUR YOUNG PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND AND MASTER! Especially in the AI world they are inheriting.

Let EELS be your Class Mascot!

And, please don't think about this being one more thing put on your educator plate:

Thoughts on why EELS should be a classroom's class pets! Let's call SEL skills what they really are

 SEL, or Social-Emotional Learning, has been a guiding framework and set of ideas and skills students (and all human beings) should be exposed to, taught, and made use of throughout their lives. Prior to the COVID crisis, shutdown, and reopening, SEL has taken on new life and widespread interest among school districts and educators because of the need to help so many students and adults recover from emotional damage and baggage caused by and during the global shutdowns. But also more recently, SEL has become part of the political culture war, as many conservatives and Republicans feel SEL is part of attempts to teach our children about DEI and 'wokeness', indoctrination of students, and other reasons that have given SEL a black eye for many around the country. 

I say the SEL has the letters in the incorrect order - try ELS instead, meaning Essential Life Skills. Since students, and all human beings, need the skills everyday, we get EELS, or Everyday Essential Life Skills! 

Here are some of my thoughts about renaming/rebranding SEL as EELS. I include graphics any teachers can use immediately as handouts, posters, or to add to student assignments and literature, reasoning behind all this, and evidence as to why EELS are essential for student growth and learning. Teachers of all ages and grade levels are encouraged to include EELS in all aspects of your classroom culture and curricula - and teachers are already using numerous skills, likely without knowing the skills are associated with traditional SEL models. So these are not new, but instead a foundational part of every classroom! Check it out. 

Inspired by quantum mechanics, how I think about my students (and humans in general)

 Yes, this title is correct. I've been inspired by quantum mechanics to develop a different mindset about how to think about my students, and human beings in general! What on earth does this mean?!

If you know anything about quantum mechanics, it is probably the core concept you've heard of (usually this comes up in a chemistry class in high school, but usually not much is done with it except a mention of the concept): particle-wave duality. 

This is the notion that something like an electron, which most people think of as a tiny solid ball, or particle, can actually, under the right conditions that we're observing the electron, can act as a wave. Or that a photon, which is light and most would think of as a wave, can actually, under the right conditions that we're observing the photon, can act as a particle. An example of an electron or other similar pieces of matter, acting like particles is shown below. 

This is from an old photo in my classroom of particles moving in a bubble chamber at Fermilab. Each track is an individual subatomic particle moving through a medium. Particles do this; at least in this type of experiment or observation. The same electrons in this photo, if observed in a different way, like moving through a small hole or slit, will look like this:

This is an electron beam in a cathode ray tube in my lab. The alternating rings we see are electrons undergoing diffraction, which only waves can do! 

The important question to consider is: when an electron is just moving through space, and we are not observing it, is it a particle or a wave????

The answer is, in quantum mechanics, both! When not being observed, we cannot know what state the electron is in, and mathematically we create a wave function that has the two possible states in the function, along with coefficients that are related to the probability of being either a particle or a wave! 

Probabilities, and a mix of possible states when not being observed, is where I start relating this to my students. Also, the notion that the way we observe an electron helps 'select' the state we actually observe the electron, is key (some say that an observation 'collapses the wave function' into one specific state of the object, which is the state we observe...either a particle or a wave, if it's an electron). 

Here's what I mean for human beings. Think of all the emotional or mood states in which a human can be observed. We can be happy, sad, angry, curious, bored, excited, annoyed, and so on. However, can we know, exactly, which of these particular states our best friend is in at a specific moment in time, when he or she is not with us? If we cannot observe them in any way, of course the answer is we cannot know for sure. The best we can do is give the odds, or probabilities, of them being in a particular state at a given moment. This is no different than how we treat electrons in quantum mechanics. 

And then, when our friend walks into our room and we can actually now observe him or her, then we see one of those possible states 'crystallize' or 'collapse' into one specific emotional or mood state! And, the way we observe them can have an effect on which state we see. If we are in a room that is dark, damp, and depressing, and/or we are in a bad mood, this will affect which state we see our friend in - they may have been in a good mood just before walking in, but became more depressed or concerned for us when they see us and our mood, or the environment of the room! Again, this is similar to quantum mechanics, where the way we observe an electron (i.e. the experiment we do), selects the specific state, particle or wave, that we actually observe. 

So I think of my students as 'quantum critters', who are some complex mix of possible emotional or mood states, all superposed with each other when I have not yet seen the students. When they are in the hallways walking to my room, I do not have a clue what mood state they are in - I can only assign probabilities that they are happy or sad or angry, etc., at any given moment before stepping into my room. This is like an emotional or mood wave function. What's more, and makes this even more complex a situation, human beings have unique, complex emotional/mood wave functions! We are all different from each other, because we have a unique set of probabilities for being in a given emotional state. My students are not at all like the way we traditionally have thought about humans for over a century - where, just because they are the same age, all 3rd graders are basically identical to each other (and this can be said for every grade level). Even if you say this is ridiculous, it is certainly how we have treated them for a century in nearly all schools. All 8 year old kids coming to school are put in the same 3rd grade classroom, given the same supplies and books and resources, do the same activities and lessons for the same amount of time on the same day, take the same assessments, and are expected to learn the same things and do equally well. Even if some kids do poorly, not much time is taken to fix the problems, because the class has to move on to the next topic in order to complete the curriculum in the same amount of time, regardless of how well any one student is or is not learning. 

This sounds like we think of students as being identical to me! And it is ridiculous! 

Thinking of students, and all human beings, as unique, complex mixtures of possible states, with unique and complex mixtures of talents and strengths and weaknesses and interests and intelligences (such as the eight intelligences defined in Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences), is a more realistic view of a human being! This type of mindset for a teacher is invaluable because it forces us to think differently than the traditional approach to education, teaching, and learning - and it forces us to set up our classes differently, and provide a better mix of teaching techniques, better variety in activities and types of lessons, and allowing for more student input and opportunities for them to learn more and better. It forces us to think about and add more SEL skills, or as I call them, Everyday Essential Life Skills (EELS), which all humans need to be strong in for everyday life. 

A strange diagram helps show how I think about a student, or every human being - a complex, unique mixture of possible emotional/mood states: 

WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT!! SO WE NEED TO SETUP SCHOOLS AND CLASSROOMS TO DEAL WITH THIS BETTER THAN WE HAVE, SO EVERY STUDENT HAS A CHANCE TO MAXIMIZE THEIR LEARNING AND SKILLSETS! 

We are NOT all the same, where the traditional (i.e. standardized) teaching method is to give everyone the same things at the same times and doing the same lessons to take the same assessments on the same days, while expecting the same results...this does not work for all students, and way too many are left behind! 

Let's change the mindset from traditional education to a 'quantum education' approach, where we identify, accept, and work with the FACT that EVERY STUDENT IS COMPLEXLY UNIQUE! 

There's more about all this given in my TED Talk, with an example of doing this with new levels of (unprecedented) success when addressing the issue of racial academic achievement gaps that plague so many diverse districts across the country, in something we called Project Excite.