In schools, the emphasis these days is on “Social Emotional Learning,” a phrase probably invented some time after today’s parents were in school.
The person in charge of this at District 186, Kelly Sholtis, led a presentation at Monday’s school board meeting: “Social emotional learning is sort of the basis for all of the learning in the district,” she said, “and we use the five SEL competencies: self-awareness and self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness.”
The superintendent, Jennifer Gill, said it’s time to highlight some of what is going on in the district — in addition to the pandemic.
“We’ve always had social workers, and we’ve always had a school psychologist,” Gill said after Monday’s meeting, “but the number of them, the fact that we have one social worker in every school, additional social workers at the middle school and high school level, and we have school psychologists that are assigned to each school, as well as other individuals who support behavior and learning, is new.”