As it is in schools now, emotional intelligence is a marginallized subject that teachers must touch on during a generalized health curriculum and steal moments during the day to help individual students. The very difficult students are referred to the school counselor. We need to develop an ongoing emotional intelligence curriculum for our elementary and secondary schools. Conflict resolution skills , to help students see conflict as an opportunity to find out more about the motivations of others. Peer-counseling skills , to teach students that they can help each other out with the hurts and bumps of every day life.
Assessment skills so our young ones learn what to look for in a seriously disturbed peer.
Young people need the skills to determine when to take concerns about themselves or a peer to trusted adults. Teachers are already overwhelmed with meeting the academic requirements expected of them. The best place to teach caring and conflict resolution is on the playground. The playground is the place where students are assumed to blow off steam so they can focus in the classroom. The playground is actually the place where students learn to relate to each other.