“As much as 80% of adult “success” comes from EQ.” — Daniel Goleman
While success means different outcomes to different people, it is clear that EQ plays a very crucial role in enabling one to achieve his/her goals.
This applies to young minds also. Academic learning can happen only when the child has emotional awareness and self-regulation. Integrating these emotional skills into the curriculum is the need of the hour. Is this a need that has arisen just now? Not really; but this need was not realised and understood earlier; Over the last few decades, educational institutes “managed” academic learning without emphasis on emotional awareness, and there were no visible undesirable consequences at the community level.
So, what is different now?
Globalisation and Social Media have condensed the world, and children have access to a variety of information. One needs emotional balance to sort and process this sea of information.
Children of this generation are part of nuclear families; some do not have siblings; hence are the centre of focus of both parents and have access to all privileges without having to “earn” them. Children find it difficult to cope with disappointments and failures.
Post-COVID, children find socialisation difficult, resulting in increased interpersonal conflicts in the classroom.
Thus, the need to develop emotional intelligence should be a high priority of educational institutes across the world. More today than before. At Ekya, we empower children with self-awareness and social awareness through our “Life Skills” program. Our life skills programme is based on the Social Emotional and Ethical Learning curriculum developed by Emory University, Atlanta, USA. It is a module-based curriculum that takes children through various aspects of self-awareness and social awareness.
If we want a better world to inhabit, we need to start today, right now, by empowering our future citizens with emotional intelligence.
Mathangi R
Head of School
Ekya NICE Road
A good father will leave his imprint on his daughter for the rest of her life. ~ Dr. James Dobson
To a daughter, a father is always her knight in shining armour. The one calm in the storm she can always hold on to. The one line of defence, which, no matter how old she grows or what she is dealing with, will never hesitate to stand in front of her.
My father and I have always shared the most special relationship. He is the only person who can make me laugh when I feel I cannot even smile.
One incident which will never erase itself from my memory is when he sat by me when I got my first ever poor grade in middle school,m doing the exact same thing.
I was 12 years of age when this happened.
As the answer sheets for our recent Mathematics test were being distributed, I sat there waiting for my own. Maths was not my strong suit, but I had always managed to get a decent marks in the subject. This time too, I had put my best foot forward for the test and had expected a decent result, as per usual.
Only it was not.
In the place where there usually sat a B or a B+ rather comfortably was a bright, imposing C in red, staring right back at me. My first reaction to this was a look of pure disbelief. As I kept looking at the grade, it morphed into a face which mocked me incessantly.
Once the disbelief had washed over me and was gone, a fine sheen of shame collected in my irises, cascading down my cheeks as tears. That evening, when my father came to pick me up from school, he was met with a weak hug and downcast eyes from me.
When we once got to the car, he inquired about what happened instead of beating around the bushes. With a quivering lip, I told him about my grade. Mentally, I had prepared myself for the speech that was about to come. About how he was absolutely disappointed in me. About how I had been a terrible child and deserved a harsh punishment.
Much to my disbelief, however, he simply put his head back on the car seat and barked out a laugh. When I looked at him, I suppose my disbelief was clear in my eyes since he simply smiled and told me he had done the exact same thing in his school days. Moreover, he suggested that I should instead be celebrating the fact that I passed!
He promised that he would help with the upcoming Maths test and assured me that mistakes were nothing but stepping stones to success.
That was how my father made me laugh all the way home when I thought I couldn’t even crack a smile. On that day, I never felt more connected to my dad because I understood that even sometimes, our heroes make mistakes, and that is perfectly fine.
Emotions and colours are interconnected; I see life through the spectrum and want to share my colourful experience at school!
At the start of school, everything is grey. I am disappointed to bid the summer a farewell, but it is also blue with hope, yellow with excitement and black with mystery of what I can go through here.
The third week at school is purple with the calmness of routine and inspiration for new projects. It is pink with playfulness and fun that has grown between my classmates and me now that I have gotten to know them.
My orange days symbolise my optimism for upcoming exams and our class assembly. A hint of brown peeks through; after all, one cannot write her exams or perform on stage without slight anxiety.
Cyan gives me a sense of calm after the brutal first term and all my hardships whether classes, exams or friends, and I am at peace, but not for long. Maroon makes itself known with the new constant race to finish portions and revise for the next set of exams, with more homework, and meanwhile, I am stuck in the eye of the stress storm.
Finally, red revealed itself with the danger of the final exams, but no matter what, while means risk, it also gave me the strength to complete and conquer it, but all I can think of is the summer.
At the end of the year, I am green with growth in my academics, friendships and myself, for the gruelling school year has passed. Exam marks come later, as it's time to chill with Indigo during the summer break.
Prisha A Reddy, Ekya Schools
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