Misconceptions about Social-Emotional Learning

TRUE: Emotional intelligence (the ability to be smart about feelings) is only one of the many parts of SEL.

TRUE: Unfortunately, some educators DO not believe SEL skills are as important.

SEL skills are often referred to as "soft skills", but they're just as important as "hard skills".

FALSE: People aren't born knowing how to manage emotions, get along with others, and solve problems.

TRUE: Teachers can use what they know about their students to design SEL lessons in which all students can fully access and apply these skills

TRUE: SEL helps parents and teachers understand that all behavior is communicating something

TRUE: Rewards and consequences will not teach on their own. Students need caring adults to explain the interpersonal consequences of social mistakes.

FALSE: While evidence should inform a great deal of what we do, we can't count on all evidence to be quantitatively measured.