Kids need more than discipline – they need social and emotional learning

These days there’s a lot of talk about how kids need more discipline.

It is certainly true that teachers are spending far too much of precious instruction time dealing with student misconduct in the classroom. Underscoring this point was an  analysis by The Charleston Post and Courier reporting that low-income students are being suspended in alarming numbers in Berkley, Charleston and Dorchester Counties.

As someone who works with kids, providing social and emotional education in after school programming, I know how important it is to teach and model responsible behavior. But it is important to recognize that only by investing sustained effort can we truly make the kind of impact that will keep kids in school and under control. And we’ve got to provide this additional help to rescue floundering students long before they fail in the middle school and high school years.

As a community we must rise to the challenge by focusing on finding cost-effective solutions that really work - and putting them into practice without delay.

Forget about a quick fix. You cannot change behavior by scheduling a few encounters with a guidance counselor or posting a list of rules at the start of the school year.

It’s a mistake to criticize overworked teachers and principals trying to do the best they can under difficult conditions. Let’s not fault parents for providing insufficient discipline at home. And the last thing we should do is blame the kids.

What we have found in more than a decade at WINGS for kids, in our learning laboratory at Memminger Elementary School in downtown Charleston, is that it takes two years to impart a full dose of social and emotional life skills. In that time, kids learn to size up situations, recognize what behavior is appropriate, mange their emotions and adjust their actions accordingly.

As their social awareness develops, they need opportunities to practice so they become increasingly adept at meeting expectations for behaving responsibly. At WINGS these small lessons are hidden within an amazingly fresh and fun after school program that gives them the missing piece of their education. Through activities like sports or art, kids practice their newfound skills constantly, 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, all year long.

Youth leaders, who are college students and predominantly African-American, model educational success. They demonstrate respectful, responsible behavior. We also are able to provide individualized attention so that kids who are having trouble controlling themselves and seeing the benefits of good behavior receive intensive coaching.

Investing this kind of effort brings measurable results. We hold kids accountable for their behavior – after giving them the tools to succeed.

But we’ve got to reach kids with prevention efforts long before they start committing infractions in middle school and high school that lead to suspensions and expulsions. Those interventions are far more expensive and far less effective. By the time we reach this point, the changes are much greater that kids will drop out, become teen parents and get in trouble with the law. We lose so many of them by waiting too long.

The educational research proves that investing time and effort to provide a strong social and emotional education increases attachment to school and decreases misconduct, the two best indicators of academic success.

For all of us committed to ensuring that all kids get the opportunity to succeed in school and in life, the discipline problems in our schools are a wake-up call to intensify our efforts and take action right now – before even more kids are lost.