I'm thinking...

If someone asked you to give them an example of a leader, who would you think of? Would it be a business leader? A community leader? A politician? What about a school teacher? School teachers are definitely leaders. They are the people that motivate, challenge, and educate children around the world.  Teachers make a tremendous impact on our kids. Wouldn't that qualify them as leaders? I definitely think so.

In 1995, Daniel Goleman wrote a book titled Emotional Intelligence and in it he defined emotional intelligence as "the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions in ourselves and others."(p. 33) Emotional intelligence quickly became the new buzz word in the business world.

If you are not familiar with emotional intelligence, watch this short YouTube video:

Emotional intelligence has to do with our emotions, the way we think, and how the two interact.

It should make sense that emotional intelligence would definitely be an important skill for a school teacher. Teachers have the responsibility of communicating information clearly to students in such a way that it is understood by the students. Think about how stressful this would be. Imagine that you are a teacher and you have the responsibility of motivating and educating your students.  At the same time, you need to maintain control of the entire classroom, address discipline issues, manage the interaction between your students, deal with parents and complete all of paperwork that you are required to do.

Teachers are role models to their students. Emotionally intelligent teachers are able to recognize the impact their words and actions have on the feelings and behavior of their students. Teachers also need to be in control of their emotions so that anything negative that occurs during the day does not adversely affect their ability to teach.



Emotional intelligence is not something you are born with but is a skill that you can learn. There is research that shows a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership. Individuals with higher levels of emotional intelligence are more successful at work. If this is a skill that can be taught, why are we not teaching emotional intelligence to students?  Before you can teach students emotional intelligence you would first have to train teachers but could be done. YouTube has plenty of videos on this subject. There is a plethora of books that have been written about emotional intelligence.

I wonder, considering the recent school shootings, if teaching emotional intelligence would make a difference and maybe these shootings could be avoided. I think the majority of people in this country would agree with me that we put a tremendous amount of pressure on ourselves. Students have a tremendous amount of pressure on them and that is not including peer pressure.

What if we taught emotional intelligence to students as part of their education? The five areas of emotional intelligence are:

• self-awareness - know your emotions
• self-regulation - regulate and control your emotions
• internal motivation - having a sense of what is important in life
• empathy - understanding and relating to the emotions of others
• social skills - the skills for building social connections

Think about it - teaching kids how to be in tune with their emotions and to have skills to manage their emotions in a positive way. At the same time the students would be learning how to respond to the people around them and to be more sensitive to what others may be feeling.

There are different ways to measure a person's emotional intelligence. Google "emotional intelligence test" and look at all the choices. Psychology Today has an online emotional intelligence test that anyone can take. It has 146 questions and at the completion of the test, the test taker receives a summary and a graph based on the individual's responses. If you do not know what your emotional intelligence level is, now is your opportunity to find out. I have included the link to make it easier for you: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/tests/personality/emotional-intelligence-test.

What is your level of emotional intelligence? What are your thoughts on teaching this skill to students as part of their education? Do you think teaching this skill would make a difference when it comes to school violence? Think about it and let me know.

Thanks for reading this week's blog and I look forward to reading your comments.

Kathy

References

Kelly, B. (2017, April 3). 5 Signs You Are Emotionally Intelligent [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adN6IJVAPiQ

Kneier, A. (2016, April 11). Inside Out - Emotional Intelligence [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdhjztWMnVw&t=36s

Naqvi, I., Iqbal, M., and Akhtar, S. (2016). The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Performance of Secondary School Teachers. Bulletin of Education and Research, Vol. 38, No, 1, pp. 209 – 224. Retrieved from http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/ier/PDF-FILES/14_Imtiaz,%20Iqbal%20&%20Akhtar_v38_1_2016.pdf

Northouse, Peter (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7^th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE