Key subject: Social learning
Some educators working with students of color are focused on teaching skills like empathy and kindness
Editor’s Note: A new school year brings new hopes. Hope that mental and emotional growth are exponential. That test scores soar. That everything just clicks. Students of color might consider themselves lucky if just one of those items can be checked off the list. In this four-part series, we’ll look at common educational hurdles faced by students of color and shed light on ways some members of the community are overcoming them.
Reading, writing and arithmetic may still dominate class time, but skills like empathy, altruism and kindness are getting more attention. They’re also vital for students’ success, academically and beyond — especially students of color, who face unique challenges outside the classroom.
These skills fall within the purview of social and emotional learning (SEL), and according to a 2012 survey of teachers, the majority believe SEL is a critical part of the in-school experience.
“I’ve worked in very privileged environments where students who are not resilient — or who don’t know how to manage emotions around setbacks — and no matter how much money their parents have, it doesn’t matter because they’re not able to bounce back,” said psychologist Audrey Bland Hampton, head of the newly opened Ryan Banks Academy on the South Side, whose goal is to primarily serve students of color. The school, which is in the process of becoming Chicago’s first private boarding school that is not religiously affiliated, adapted its SEL method from Valor Collegiate, a network of free, public charter schools in Nashville, Tenn.
SEL focuses on five core competencies: understanding and managing emotions (self-management), setting and achieving positive goals (self awareness), feeling and showing empathy for others (social awareness), establishing and maintaining positive relationships (relationship skills) and making responsible decisions.
Hampton, who has worked in boarding schools around the country, believes students should have at least a 60 percent grasp of SEL concepts and has seen that anything less can impede personal growth.
“You see the spiraling of their emotions. I think part of that is because we’re not teaching students (that) failure is going to happen and it’s OK. Someone can be the most intelligent person ever and end up having issues with depression or anxiety because there’s something that they can’t get over that no one has explicitly taught them how to get through.”
Neila Adams, Englewood resident and mother of Laci Adams, a senior at Humboldt Park’s Chicago High School for the Arts, does what she can to ensure her daughter’s emotional intel-