Speaking at the Jamaica Teachers’ Association’s 2024 Education Symposium, psychologist Dr Leahcim Semaj highlighted the importance of problem-solving and anger management skills, which are vital in addressing issues like bullying in schools. He suggested incorporating social-emotional learning activities, such as classroom check-ins and non-verbal expressions of feelings, to help students understand and express their emotions daily. Dr Semaj also emphasised that the home should be the first school for teaching these skills, with parents playing a crucial role in shaping children’s social development before they enter formal education.

Semaj: Integrate emotional intelligence into school curriculum

Jamaica Gleaner/29 Nov 2024/Christopher Thomas/ Gleaner Writer christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com

PSYCHOLOGIST DR Leahcim Semaj is recommending that emotional intelligence be incorporated into the school curriculum to assist students, and the wider society by extension, in learning the value of having empathy for others.

Semaj made the recommendation while addressing the Jamaica Teachers’ Association’s (JTA) 2024 Education Symposium at the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Mt Salem, St James, yesterday. The symposium was held under the theme ‘Emotional Intelligence – The Key to Teacher Well-being and Student Success’.

“One of the most important skills lacking in the Jamaican landscape is problem-solving skills and anger management, and that is the cornerstone of what happens in an emotionally intelligent situation. The person learns to manage those things, and it starts with the school,” said Semaj.

“Some schools have become some very brutal places, coarse, and one issue is with bullying because there are children who are afraid to go to school because children can be very unkind to each other. The whole school has to be reprogrammed, but how do we make this a comprehensive ‘whole-school’ approach?” Semaj continued. “We should integrate social emotional learning into the curriculum, and it is not an add-on. It is an integral part, a dedicated social emotional component and a crosscurricular integration, with daily emotional intelligence activities.”

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognise and understand one’s emotions and those of others, the ability to use that information to guide one’s thoughts and actions, and the ability to empathise with others. thereby building better relationships.

Semaj suggested several activities that schools could incorporate into their daily activities to help children learn emotional intelligence, including allowing students various avenues to express themselves non-verbally.

“There is a host of student exercises that we can carry out to make sure the students understand and get the concept, and one of them is the classroom check-in. I have seen things like when a child comes in and you have some emotions posted on the wall, and you tell a child‘just pick one and drop it in the box, or pick one and put it on your shirt to show what are you experiencing today’. Create opportunities for students to share how they are feeling and what they need from others,” said Semaj. “There are some options when you walk into the classroom for you to tell teacher that you want the teacher to shake your hand or give a high-five or a hug.”

Semaj also referenced a decision coming out of Australia’s Senate on Thursday that will ban children under 16 from social media, while making his point that a child’s home should be the first school where children learn critical skills for social development before entering the formal education system.

“For me, the home is the first school, and parents are the first teachers, and everything else is‘extra lessons’. The problem is that many of the children who come to you have not been to school, nor have they had any teaching…you are the last defence,” Semaj told the teachers at the symposium.

“Australia has passed a law that they are giving the social media companies one year to work out a system to make it impossible for children under 16 to get on social media. You, as parents, are supposed to have taken care of that,” Semaj added.“i am the social media director of my yard, and I determine what music and what TV is available. Persons say ‘But the child can go outside and do it,’ and I say ‘Yes, but they know that Daddy said that that cannot be right, and Daddy set the standard’.”

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