If you are currently trying to decide between private schools in Brentwood, TN, you’ll be pleased to know that many focus on your child as a whole. After all, young minds are much more than the product of what they learn in the classroom. For an overall better learning experience, look for a school that puts your child’s social-emotional learning skills on the same pedestal as their ability to do algebra.
What Is Social-Emotional Learning?
In a nutshell, a person’s social-emotional skills are those that allow them to function socially in all settings, including at work or at school. Social-emotional learning prioritizes everything from self-discipline to impulse control to emotional management and problem-solving skills.
Social-Emotional Competencies
There are many reasons that social-emotional learning can be better prioritized in private schools in Brentwood rather than in a public setting. First and foremost, teachers may have additional training on the five social-emotional learning competencies. These include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
Self-awareness is an individual’s ability to acknowledge both their strengths and their weaknesses and how each of these impacts behavior. Self-management is the ability to control thoughts, emotions, and actions, in all types of situations. In a private school setting, someone with self-management skills may be better able to complete homework on time compared to someone who lacks this vital competency.
A person’s relationship skills are what help them learn to communicate, resolve conflicts, and know when to ask for and offer help. Personal relationships are crucial throughout a child’s lifetime, which is one reason why private schools in Brentwood focus so much on helping each student learn how to manage their interactions with their peers.
The decision-making component of social-emotional learning helps students learn that their behaviors, both positive and negative, come with a unique set of consequences and benefits.
In The Classroom
Social-emotional learning is not a specific subject that students can clock into for an hour each day. Instead, it’s built into the fundamentals of a school's curriculum. Private schools in Brentwood, TN, prioritize social-emotional learning in everything from classroom interactions to lunch line encounters. One example of a social-emotional learning lesson would be allowing students to create their own groups for a class project. In this scenario, a group of students may learn how to identify one another’s strengths and weaknesses and utilize them for the greater good. Students may also be given frequent opportunities to communicate and co-mingle with students across different ages and grade levels.
There are many benefits of social-emotional learning in and outside of the classroom. Primary of these is that students with social-emotional intelligence may experience greater academic achievement, healthier relationships, and have more refined coping skills to handle the stresses that ultimately go along with high school, college, and beyond.
Finally, prioritizing social-emotional learning at all points during the day helps students self-manage their own anxieties where school performance is concerned. When students can self-regulate and better interact with their peers during times of both happiness and stress, they’ll be more connected and may find that school is not as great a challenge as they originally thought.
Currey Ingram Academy is one of the only private schools in Brentwood, TN, that focuses primarily on students with learning differences, such as ADHD and dyslexia. For more information on the program, including the social-emotional learning opportunities offered at our day and boarding school, contact Currey Ingram today.
