Why Social-Emotional Skills and Character Development Are the Secret to Raising Future-Ready Kids

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As a parent advocate trying to bring social, emotional and character development to families, schools and communities, it’s so exciting for me to see what Fulton County is doing with 7 mindsets, Gwinnett with its 7 Habits of Successful Teens and Barrow county with Conscious Discipline.

Thanks to Smart phones, Google, Wikipedia, Social Media, YouTube, MOOCs – there’s a lot of information that’s being thrown at our kids. We need to equip our children with tools to process information that’s relevant and important to them.

We would like a chance to pick your brain on the topic of how we can create a vibrant future where kids are self-motivated and are in control of their digital distractions. After all, our kids are not just their GPAs. :)

We’re often asked why Social, Emotional and Character Development is important.

And, as always, here’s our answer.

Are brains are social. We’re always trying to interpret the meaning of others’ actions.

Our cognitive abilities are rooted in our social connections and our experiences. As humans, we learn through accumulated wisdom of our previous generations.

The process is called abstraction. For example, we didn’t all invent our own coffee machines or our own cars when we needed one.

We think, experience and turn our learning into habits to form our daily lives. Our values and our character determine how we make choices in difficult situations.

And for children, their relationships and interactions with their parents drive their development.

Children who understand how their experiences are relevant for their learning in turn become invested in their own education and growth. So, its upon us caring adults to create such deep learning and meaningful experiences for them.

And that’s why FutureSTRONG Academy is a parent advocate run organization because we feel we can’t wait for schools to start building the whole child.

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A whole-child approach is the way schools, community partners, families and neighborhoods wrap their collective arms around children to care for them 24 hours a day, everywhere they are. ~ The Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative

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All Emotions

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