Defining Social Emotional Education

Teaching social emotional skills is at the very core of ENACT's mission, and has been since it's founding in 1987. Yet, this key component of a child's development has traditionally been overlooked or undervalued within the standard K-12 curriculum. It is only within the last decade that the need to teach children the key life skills embodied in social emotional education (SEE)-such as active listening, self-awareness, direct and clear communications, self-motivation, problem solving and decision making skills, and the ability to work collaboratively-has been broadly recognized.

Definitions of SEE vary, but this one put forth by Timothy P. Shriver and Roger P. Weissberg, both affiliated with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, in a New York Times Op-Ed piece on August 16, 2005, perhaps says it best:

"Social and emotional learning is the process through which children learn to recognize and manage emotions. It allows them to understand and interact with others, to make good decisions, and to behave ethically and responsibly. The best social and emotional learning programs engage not only children, but also their teachers, administrators and parents in providing children with the information and skills that help them make ethical and sensible decisions-to avoid bullying, for instance, or to resist pressures to engage in destructive or risky behavior, such as substance abuse. When they are well designed and executed, such programs have consistently achieved these goals, turning out students who are good citizens, committed to serving their communities and cooperating with others."

It is ENACT's goal to be one template for the "well-designed and executed" programs called for by Shriver and Weissberg. Recently, a data analysis by Metis Associates, a New York City-based consulting firm that develops and uses benchmarks to track progress, and assess the effectiveness and impact of programs and services, found that more than 50% of students in ENACT's four full-time AIDP Programs showed improvement in attendance. And, as the scholarly basis of this important emerging discipline begins to grow, ENACT plans to be at the heart of it. Under a grant from the Ford Foundation, the group is now evaluating and documenting its methods, determining what works and why. In doing so, ENACT will be ready to lead when the education community has learned what it already knows: a self-confident child, sure of him or herself, is a child ready to learn and grow.

The key to the process is what ENACT researchers have labeled "the container." The container represents the safe work spaces created by ENACT teaching artists to provide the optimum conditions for positive change-not only the actual physical space, but also the processes, relationships, and activities that go into the program. To continually improve the container, all ENACT programs are supervised by a social worker and a drama therapist, and even veteran Teaching Artists receive regular training, as well as the tools to assess their effectiveness, and the progress of their students.