Teaching Humanity Remotely with Dr. Mindy Shaw – Ep. 4

In this episode of my podcast, we open with a brief discussion about Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and its importance.   We discuss the role of SEL and we also enumerate that there are three basic components of concern regarding SEL…

• that children actually HAVE feelings and know how to EXPRESS them safely and appropriately
• that children have the opportunity for appropriate social interactions which is exceedingly difficult with disrupted education, and
• that children are encouraged and enabled to grow and flourish in the area of social and emotional skills

We then discuss the notion of parents as teachers and I touch on my own sincere desire to unburden parents from certain teaching responsibilities.    Parents are indeed the first and primary teachers for their children, but she also postulates that there are sometimes emotional issues that can cloud a parent’s view of their own children’s education.   Given that scenario, remote or hybrid/remote learning is clearly an added burden on parents.   Then the question becomes, where does socio-emotional learning fit into the daily schedule in the household?   That’s where the recent series of Dr. Shaw books comes in.    The variety of topics in my books with titles like Jealousy, Confident,Stubborn, Optimism, Shame, Generous and Anger all give parents the tools and the language in short, children’s picture books to present and discuss these feelings and many more.

And speaking of Anger, pre-school teacher Christina DeGrote re-joins me for a reading of my “Feelings Book” called Anger.   Ms. DeGrote reads the full book introduction which summarizes my own personal history and philosophy.   She then reads the book which not only portrays Anger as a normal and acceptable feeling to feel, but the story also presents strategies for safely diffusing one’s anger in a relatable way to children.   Ms. DeGrote then discusses her own classroom experience of managing behavioral issues with some of her young pupils.

The podcast concludes with a recap and reminder that parents have a lot of challenges right now and that my intention and my learning materials are all geared toward one thing… to help.