Q & A with Dr. David Osher - Talking About Managing Emotions.

 

David Osher: I will be talking about three things: understanding and managing emotions; understanding and managing relationships; and enhancing our cultural competence. I see these things as critical to heart-mind well-being as well as to the effective promotion of social justice. My discussion will focus both on the ability to act compassionately and the factors that often prevent us from making the deepest connections with others.  

 

I hope participants will develop or expand their understanding of social and emotional learning and its relationship to heart-mind well-being and become more self-reflective about how culture and implicit bias affect our interactions.

 

By not addressing the whole child, I think the current North American education system has failed to nurture the cognitive and social emotional development of children.  While these areas can be focused on separately, they are interactive, and social and emotional learning can contribute to those interactions.   

 

I think SEL development and education is the responsibility of everyone—families, schools, and the community. Parents play a particularly key role in the social and emotional development of their children, but they cannot do it alone. And while it is important that community agencies, such as schools, and professionals, such as teachers, also understand their responsibility, they should also work with families in a respectful and family-driven manner.