EELS: Everyday Essential Life Skills (formerly SEL)

 The notion of Social-Emotional Learning, or SEL, in schools is not a new idea - it's been around for over 30 years. CASEL is the organization that has set the standards for SEL, its skills, research into the effectiveness of SEL, and evaluations of SEL programs, for decades. But for a long time, not many schools were into SEL, and educators generally never heard of, let alone were trained in, SEL. Here is the well-known CASEL 5 Competencies that make up the core of SEL: 

This changed with COVID and the shutdown, and resulting mental health issues SO many young people and adults have had. SEL programs have been in high demand, and yet still too many have no idea what it means, or why it's important. In fact, SEL is now politicized in many states, to the point where some governors are trying to limit or eliminate SEL from schools in general, stating SEL is part of the 'liberal left's attempts to indoctrinate students...' Clearly, there is a complete lack of understanding of what SEL is, and how fundamental it actually is to learning and being a successful human being in life! 

SEL NEEDS A RE-BRANDING!

How about we switch the letters around to ELS - Essential Life Skills, which is what we are really talking about! And since we use these Everyday, these are Everyday Essential Life Skills, or EELS! 

This also gives us characters we can use to get the point across to students, especially younger students. Here are some examples of the characters we can develop to help teach students, and teachers, what the SEL skills actually are - when presented like this, even doubters begin to see why EELS are truly fundamental to teaching and learning and living. 

And the really important part of this are the skills associated with each of the competencies. This links to a booklet that has all the competencies and skills, as well as research links showing how effective and beneficial having strong EELS can be for students over the long-term (which benefits individuals AND society). Some examples:

Let's befriend EELS, and even have EELS become class mascots!! 

For this type of work, we especially need 'the creatives.' Let's make posters, brochures, worksheets, lessons, cartoons, children's books with stories involving life situations and the skills needed to deal with it, videos, songs and music, and whatever types of products can help teachers introduce EELS, and students learn, practice, and master EELS for a better life long-term!