Still two sides to equation

WE get so caught up in our children’s results. Stressing if they don’t know all the letters in the alphabet in their first year of schooling, or being able to write their names or count to a certain number.

But as business coach and emotional intelligence expert Daniel Tolson says, where the focus for our kids is squarely on academic performance, it needs to start turning to the importance of emotional intelligence.

Running underneath all those facts and figures, good emotional intelligence will surely provide a foundation of learning, a lifetime of stability and as the experts say in the article on this matter, a more successful career.

I’ve always believed that with the right amount of drive, next to anything can be learnt, at any age. At this newspaper, we hear and tell so many stories every day about incredible people achieving amazing things – people who learn to read in their older years or change career by studying as a mature age student.

It’s this adaptability and can-do attitude that make it all possible. And that’s why we should value grades as important, but what’s so much more crucial is how kids are coping.

What’s the value of an A if it came with a concerning lack of sleep or extreme emotions? The shift to setting up these foundations is important and I think the positive is, there are now so many parents recognising and engaging in building emotionally strong children.