ABSTRACT
Our SECD lens reveals the deep connection of academic, social and emotional learning infused throughout a school. A comprehensive approach to promoting SECD would be similarly multifaceted. A web search of social and emotional learning or of character education will yield a lifetime’s worth of “hits.” One would quickly realize that there is no shortage of books, curricula, and providers of professional development in these areas. While we applaud this blossoming of the field, we are also concerned about the potential misleading messages that social and emotional growth can be addressed by using only a few activities or techniques, or that these activities or techniques should exist on a plane parallel to that of academics. It is tempting to take a checklist approach to promoting SECD. We must address the complexity of how social-emotional competencies and character develop. A teacher’s SECD journey needs to start somewhere, and we’ve found it helpful to start with the notion of skill building connected with core virtues.
