A Conversation With Lee Guerette

Why do you believe SEL and EQ are important?

 21st Century Education , awareness of one world These thoughts are based on the brilliant report on “Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World” by Veronica Boix Mansilla & Anthony Jackson, affiliated with the Council of Chief State School Officers. In spite of recent political trends, our home planet is one world and cross-cultural influences will continue to grow. Whether with respect to pollution, wealth distribution, health, or politics, each country will contribute to modifying the world. Compared to the rest of the nation, my state, New Hampshire, is on the cutting edge of innovation, transitioning from time spent in the classroom as the criteria for graduation to competencies-based education. It also is current with an SEL curriculum called ‘Just Choose Love” created by Scarlette Lewis, the mother of a Sandy Hook victim. Most educators understand and successfully provide enough information and skill instruction to give students access to employment, but at the current rate of knowledge expansion and technological advances, if we went to sleep for five years and then suddenly woke up, our day would be a challenge. Technologies, sciences, and social trends are mutating so rapidly that what we know how to do now will become obsolete at a progressively more accelerated rate. These factors, plus the effects of Covid, War, Climate Change, and Economic instability are making demands of our nervous system that push average people towards a mental health crisis, However, the mind-body setup, our character, and our social-emotional skills will continue to serve us well. Skills that will sustain students, families and nations have more to do with our character than facts. The skills required to thrive in the 21st Century are detailed in a brilliant report titled “Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World” (2011) by Veronica Boix Mansilla & Anthony Jackson, affiliated with the Council of Chief State School Officers. This is a summary: 1. We must understand our psychological makeup to monitor and make life choices that will bring us health and happiness. 2. We need to become lifelong learners, flexible thinkers and open to new ideas. 3. We need to be culturally sensitive to other races, geographic influence, religions, economic and educational levels. 4. We need to become wise stewards of earth resources. 5. We need a moral compass for just social practices in business, as individuals and communities. Good teachers always endeavor to bring positive ethics into the classroom, but as an experienced advocate of social emotional learning, I would suggest that Social Emotional Learning become a co-curricular activity or be woven into all courses as a best practice. Curriculum and training for teachers to understand and use collaborative, thought-provoking, emotionally profound lessons to deeply engage their charges is essential for them to become 21st-century thinkers.

Do you have any personal anecdotes about how SEL/EQ has brought you success in your
personal life/career?

The biggest influence in my life has been the study of Advaita Vedanta with the Advaita Vedanta Meditation Group in Waltham Mass

What do you believe to be one or two of the main challenges in education (K-8) today?

Self Regulation – acceptance of Diversity

Conversely, what do you believe to be one or two of the biggest opportunities in education (K-8) today?

Global Community Communication–Emphasis on Well Being