My son is pretty bright.
I don’t say this as some jaded father who thinks his kids are perfect (as you’ll soon see).
But he’s always been pretty smart.
He could string together full sentences before his second birthday.
He could explain why a giraffe’s tongue is purple before preschool (Thank you, Wild Kratts).
He could identify a quatrefoil at 18 months (I have video, I swear, though his pronunciation leaves you wondering if he’s actually giving the name of the shape or saying, “Cat shit.” It’s YouTube gold.)
So when it was time for him to enter kindergarten just before his fifth birthday, my thought was, “Absolutely. He’s totally prepared.”
My wife, a former kindergarten teacher and speaker of wise things in our household, hit me with reality. “Yeah, no,” she said. “Not gonna happen.” She didn’t even hesitate.
Why, though? I argued. He’s smart enough. Capable enough.
But he’s not emotionally or socially ready, my wife explained. He needs another year of preschool.
And, boy, was she right.
He struggled in school socially. When we went in for our winter conference, we were told that Elliot had “finally left the side of the teacher at recess to play with other kids.”
Oof.
Although he’s mild-mannered, he had (has) trouble expressing himself verbally. He’s still working on self-advocacy, four years later.
Measuring school readiness is a tricky thing. Most now agree that academics and cognitive ability are not a great measure.
The trendy answer to predicting school success is how many parents are in the household.
But this is probably more a piece of a larger puzzle: the social and emotional skills a child possesses.
Research is pretty clear that social and emotional skills are the best predictor of student success.
These skills include everything from the level of self-esteem a child has to how well s/he gets along with others.
Perhaps, though, the two skills I see students struggle with the most are identifying and regulating one’s emotions; and thinking of appropriate solutions to conflict.
(Of course, reading through just about any social media thread makes me wonder how well adults have mastered these skills as well.)
“Learning,” an MSU study concluded, “is a social process.”
And with social interaction comes conflict and self-realization.
Covid is hitting SEL hard. We know this. We, as educators, know that a lack of socialization is inhibiting education and academic achievement. Students are delayed at an alarming rate, this often hitting lower-income families the hardest.
And no solution is going to be adequate.
My wife, she of the former-kindergarten-teacher variety, used to tell me the hardest part of kindergarten was setting a structure in place and teaching young children how to act appropriately in a school / social setting. Waiting to speak. Respecting other students’ property and space. Reading the social cues of other students.
At the beginning of this year, I had a teacher approach me and ask if we had any socialization and behavioral curriculum for our returning high schoolers. Jokingly, I said, “Sure, we call it kindergarten.”
But there’s a truth there. In some ways, we’re at a reset in education. Curriculum is paramount, yes. But prior to that, SEL must be a priority.