"If you want to care for the children, you have to care for the adults in the system as well." With mental health in schools becoming a growing concern, Kimberly Schonert-Reichl stops by to share her expertise and talk about how COVID is shining a light on the issue.
Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl is the NoVo Foundation Endowed Chair in Social and Emotional Learning and Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. There has been a push to maintain in-person learning during the pandemic, and that has come with several new challenges - one of the biggest being how to handle the mental health impact being felt by everyone in school systems. Kimberley has done extensive research on this subject and highlights from her conversation with Rod and Jal include: why we are seeing more kids acting out in schools; an emphasis on supporting the mental health of teachers and administrators in addition to the children; where social-emotional learning (SEL) fits within school curriculums; how stress levels transfer between teachers and students; why schools should focus more on developing better citizens of tomorrow instead of just academic outcomes; and a little wisdom gleaned from the Dalai Lama.