Why Should I Look for Schools That Develop Children Socially and Emotionally?
by YourSFPublicSchools Team ~ December 21st, 2009
Author: Lisa Borah-Geller, parent and curriculum developer.
I am a San Francisco parent, a former teacher, and a curriculum developer. Like some of you, I have spent a lot of time touring elementary schools. I have noticed that many parents look at test scores, program offerings, and principal leadership to judge the quality of a school. I encourage parents to also consider the school environment and how it fosters children’s social and emotional development. This is equally as important.
Touring the schools has made me reflect upon what kind of school environment I want for my daughter and how that environment can help her develop into the kind of person I hope she will become. I would like my daughter to treat others in a respectful, fair, and caring way and take responsibility for herself.
Research shows that creating a strong sense of community at school increases students’ academic performance and has a positive influence on students’ behavior. When students are in caring school communities, they are more likely to like school, enjoy challenging learning activities, and help others (http://devstu.org/page/p-r-scientific-basis). In addition, data from a study on adolescent health, found that students’ sense of connectedness to school (and family) were linked to a decrease in a range of problem behaviors, including: the use of alcohol, violent behavior, emotional distress, and early sexual activity (http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/training/connect/school_pg3.html).
Fortunately, many of the SFUSD schools implement either the Tribes Learning Community® (http://www.tribes.com) or Caring School Community® programs (http://devstu.org/page/caring-school-community). Both of these programs help create a positive classroom and school environment. My non-profit employer developed the Caring School Community program.
Recently, as part of my work, I had the opportunity to observe a class-meeting lesson in a kindergarten classroom at Sunnyside Elementary School in San Francisco. In class meetings, children get to know each other, discuss issues, identify and solve problems, and make decisions that affect classroom climate. The teacher engaged the children in authentic discussion with each other as they talked about how to act for substitute teachers. Talking about how to treat substitute teachers and committing to positive, helpful behaviors prevents problems and makes the classroom run more smoothly when the regular teacher is absent. Ultimately, a child who discusses and learns why she should treat everyone respectfully (including substitute teachers) is beginning to develop into the kind of person I hope my daughter will become—a good, caring, and responsible one.
Lisa Borah-Geller has been a curriculum developer for eleven years at the Developmental Studies Center, a non-profit educational organization in Oakland, CA. Prior to that she was an elementary school teacher in the San Rafael City Schools in San Rafael, CA. Lisa lives in San Francisco and has two children, Lila, age four, and Lucas, age two.
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
You raise a good point about evaluating a school on the basis of factors other than test scores. I would like to point out that when visiting a school on a tour it’s not easy to get a sense of school climate. Also, while I do agree that these other dimensions of connectedness you mention help to constitute a good learning environment, given that your employer claims that Caring School Communities helps to deliver better academic performance, don’t higher test scores indicate social and emotion gains as well? That is to say, if achievement and climate are integrally related it follows that test scores would reflect upon climate. And if better climate results in fewer disciplinary offenses, wouldn’ t behavior statistics also be a reasonable indicator of climate?
At the same time I understand that part of the problem in acquiring information on a school is that statistics don’t give a holistic sense of the learning environment, even if test scores reflect a great deal about a school, even though higher scores are positively correlated with fewer disciplinary issues. It is no revelation that higher scores reflect positively on the attitudes of students. In this way, I have to question the notion you raised about competition as a negative. I would agree that competition in the extreme may be counterproductive to learning when stress is at an unhealthy level, but our whole education system, particularly from secondary school through college, is competitive in nature. Are you referring to reducing competition strictly in elementary school education or are you suggesting that we revise the entire approach to the way we educate in accordance with the views of your employer, the Developmental Studies Center? Could you please clarify?
Lastly, I am concerned about the Caring Schools Community’s emphasis on teaching LGBT sex education (Lesson 9) to small children. I don’t believe sex education at school is appropriate for that age group. So I am concerned when you use the term “authentic discussion” that you have an idea about authenticity that is quite different from that which I would see as authentic. I believe an authentic conversation is simply an honest one. That does not meant to include an honest and open conversation on any subject including sex education for young children.Given that your employer espouses such views (re: Alameda County BOE news from last spring) I would be have pause before employing the Caring Schools Community model, the use of which you are encouraging here on Your SF Schools.
I look forward to hearing your response.
December 24th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
what is this author talking about?. Why is she citing adolescent health statistics in reference to elementary school children? Last I heard there are developmental differences between a 5 y.o and a 15 y.o. I’m also kind of surprised that the author is pushing Caring School Communities in her article. Isn’t this seld-serving as an employee of DSC?
I lot of this stuff about connectedness sounds like mumbo-jumbo.Iis this suppose to be some sort of revelation that liking school will make you do better? Wow, I should have thought of that! I’m also curious to know what an authentic conversation is. Unlike Mr. Krause, I suspect it is not an honest conversation. but instead a politicakky correct one.
January 10th, 2010 at 4:54 am
Interesting, never thought of it like that
January 12th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Thanks. Really useful posting.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
Hi, it looks like your site