I’m guilty. I might have been a little overprotective of my children when they were young. I didn’t like to see them sad or frustrated or upset. It is possible that my behavior contributed to the challenges they faced growing up. Maybe I was too quick to come to the rescue and didn’t always let them figure out how to deal with the consequences of their own actions
Does that mean I was a bad mom? No, but if I had known then what I know now, things might have turned out differently.
The Importance of Social Emotional Learning – SEL
Today’s schools are beginning to address social emotional learning in the classroom. Making it an integral part of academic instruction is an important step in the right direction. Students need to learn that they are in control of their own learning and emotions and attitudes.
If teachers collaborate with parents to explicitly teach coping skills and problem solving skills starting in Kindergarten and continuing every year all the way through high school, our children will be better prepared to cope with life’s inevitable challenges. Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset is a good start in that direction.
Those of us who work in suicide prevention know that building those skills early and in partnership with parents is a critical component. We could use the help of publishers of textbooks, trade books, and other educational material for schools to provide those kinds of resources for schools.
You can help. Find out more about the connection between coping and problem solving skills and suicide and pass it on. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/prevention.html
A
Culture of Caring: A Suicide Prevention Guide for Schools (K-12) was
created as a resource for educators who want to know how to get started and
what steps to take to create a suicide prevention plan that will work for their
schools and districts. It is written from my perspective as a school principal
and survivor of suicide loss, not an expert in psychology or counseling. I hope
that any teacher, school counselor, psychologist, principal, or district
administrator can pick up this book, flip to a chapter, and easily find helpful
answers to the questions they are likely to have about what schools can do to
prevent suicide.
