Emotional literacy courses are appearing in schools across the country. The names of these classes range from "social development" to "life skills." The common thread is the goal of teaching social and emotional intelligence to children as a part of their regular education. Ideally, lessons on feelings and relationships are interwoven throughout the curriculum. Emotional literacy programs have been shown to improve children's academic scores and school performance, as well as help them better serve their roles in life as friends, students, sons and daughters, and competent and contented adults. The optimal design of these programs is to begin early, be age-appropriate, run throughout the school years, and intertwine with efforts at school, home, and in the community. If such a proposal is to become reality, education and support is needed for teachers and parents.

While educational programs to prevent problems of drug abuse, violence, etc., have proliferated wildly in recent decades, most have proven largely ineffective. For example, many schools offer programs to prevent sexual abuse. Most focus on providing basic information: teaching children how to know the difference between good and bad touching, alerting them to dangers, encouraging them to tell an adult if anything suspicious occurs, etc. These trainings have proven to be ineffective in helping children do something to prevent being victimized. Promise appears in programs that supplement the basic sexual-abuse information with essential emotional and social skills. The most effective programs teach children how to solve interpersonal conflicts more positively, foster self-confidence and self-awareness, and build a network of support in teachers and parents whom children feel they can turn to.The children who came through these programs are better able to protect themselves: they are far more likely to demand to be left alone, to yell or fight back, to threaten to tell, and to tell someone when appropriate.

The fact is that wars on drugs, teen pregnancy, you name it, come too late, after the problem has reached epidemic proportions and taken root in the lives of our children. The focus should rather be on prevention, developing and offering the resources--in the home, schools, and communities--that support children in developing the life-skills that will increase their chances of avoiding these problems. This not to negate the role of other risk factors (growing up in fragmented, abusive families, or in an impoverished, crime- and drug-ridden neighborhood), and the pressing need for political and economic interventions to alleviate the conditions. It is simply acknowledge too, that emotional competence plays a role over and above family and economic forces, a role that may determine the extent to which a child is impacted by these conditions. This means that apart from advocating changes in the conditions and circumstances that breed these problems, a great deal can be offered to children to help them grapple better with these hardships.

Of course no program... is an answer to every problem. But given the crisis we find ourselves and our children facing, and given the quantum of hope held out by courses in emotional literacy, we must ask ourselves: Shouldn't we be teaching these most essential skills for life to every child--now more than ever? And if not now, when?

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