Do Students & Teachers Think Schools Should Teach Emotional & Life Skills?

The author Sir Ken Robinson speaks on TED talk about “bringing on the revolution.” Sir Ken Robinson says in his TED talk that “In fact, on the contrary, I think it is still true of a minority of people. And I think there are many possible explanations for it. And high among them is education, because education, in a way, dislocates very many people from their natural talents. And human resources are like natural resources; they’re often buried deep.” (03:16) This quote of what Sir Ken Robinson says is similar to teaching emotional skills because, learning in school so much distracts students from the students learning about themselves. So, have students or teachers ever sat and thought about if schools should teach emotional and life skills? According to the article “Yale’s most popular class ever: Happiness”, there is a course, taught by a psychologist professor by the name Laurie Santos. The courses main goal is to teach students how to live a happy life. So, the question is, do students and teachers think schools should teach emotional and life skills? In my opinion, I think that schools should teach students emotional and life skills. The reason, I agree is because we use our emotions every day and we also use emotions everywhere. Also, because teaching students’ emotional skills can lower the student’s possibility of falling into anxiety and emotional skills.

When I started my first year of college last fall Two Thousand Eighteen, I was not prepared. I took six classes my first year. I had to withdraw from one of my classes because I felt like it was too much for me. I was always stressed out and I did not know what to do. I had so many assignments that I felt that when I had time to relax and rest, I always had something due for a class. I was always busy doing my school work that I really never had to for myself. I only had time for my class work because once I was done with one assignment, I had to do another assignment for a different class. I was never taught how to manage things in classes nor how to stay organized and keep myself stress free throughout the semester. I focused more the next semester spring two thousand nigh teen to be able to keep my emotions in place and keep the stressing away. I was always stressing about my grades how I had to keep them high to have a high GPA. I was told that I could take a class that could kind of help me with the problem that I had. The course is called college to success skills. The class helps students to balance their work, emotions, and stress levels. In the article Yale’s Most Important Class Ever: Happiness,” it says “Yale students are interested in the class because, in high school, they had to deprioritize their happiness to gain admission to the school, adopting harmful life habits that have led to what she called “the mental health crises we’re seeing at places like Yale.” This is how I felt in high school and from high school to college until after I took a course that helped me become better.

One way, schools should teach students emotional and life skills is by opening a course that is required for students to take. If the course is a requirement then everyone will have no other choice but to take the course. As if the course were not to be a requirement then therefore students would not take the class because they are already stressed out enough with the other courses they have. Also, schools should make the course a course that is very easy and one can learn quick. That way the students do not get bored and just want to give up on the class.  In addition, teachers should be lenient and not as tough on the students on the course because it is to help them and also remember that the course is to help a student succeed not for the student to struggle even more. Therefore, in the article “Yale’s Most Popular Class Ever: Happiness” says “Students have long requested that Yale offer a course on positive psychology.” The reason is Because, students want to learn how to better themselves.

Teachers can encourage and spread the word of the emotional and life skill course. The teachers can try and go an extra mile out of their way to help a student be successful. Teachers can come up with activities and fun ideas that make the student want to stay and at the end of the course the students would enjoy it so much that they would not want to even leave the course. For example, the teacher can come up with a game for the students to participate in for extra credit or other activities. Teachers should not over load the students with so much homework, and projects because then the students will not have time for themselves. If anything, teachers should encourage study groups for the students and the students could meet up and not just get help from the teachers, but the students could also get help from their peers. The reason for is because most students feels more comfortable and learn more when they work in groups with other students.

Another thing is that teachers are not the only ones who need to put effort into having the students be successful. The students need to put effort into succeeding as well. by the students succeeding they can have to want to change. For example, in the article Yale’s Most Popular Class Ever: Happiness they have a quote that says, “students want to change, to be happier themselves.” It also says that “students showing more gratitude, procrastinating less, increasing social connections we’re actually seeding change in the school’s culture.” (Yale’s Most Popular class Ever: Happiness) This shows that they have students out there in the world that would like to change some of their life styles.

When I was in high school, I procrastinated a lot. I would always tell myself that I had enough time to do my assignments. Then, the day before the assignments due date I would sit all day doing the assignment to turn it in the next day. It was so stressful because, I had to rush and do the assignments that would be due the next day. Another, thing is that when one procrastinates and does the assignment last minute most of the time the student will get a low grade and they would possibly fail the assignment due to the lack of time due to procrastinating and deciding to always push important things for later.

In conclusion, is it necessary for teachers to teach their students emotional and life skills? It is both the teachers and the student’s job to become successful and achieve thesse skills. For students to be happy with their careers later in life they need to learn both emotional and life skills. Because if the students do not learn they will lack interest in school and later on in life. As Sir Ken Robinson says in his ted talk, “The reason so many people are opting out of education is because it doesn’t feed their spirit, it doesn’t feed their energy or their passion.” (13:37)

Works Cited

• Robinson, Ken. “Bring on the Learning Revolution!” TED, TED Conferences, LLC, https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_ revolution, accessed 27 August 2018.
• Shimer, David. “Yale’s Most Popular Class Ever: Happiness” The New York Times: 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/nyregion/at-yale-class-on-happiness-draws-huge-crowd-laurie-santos.html?module=inline, accessed 19 April 2019
• Proulx, Natalie. “Should Schools Teach You How to Be Happy” The New York Times: 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/learning/should-schools-teach-you-how-to-be-happy.html, accessed 19 April 2019