Emotional Education reduces violence in the classroom

The Emotional education is already a reality in many schools in Spain, thanks to the Botín Foundation, which has promoted its Responsible Education program in more than 150 educational centers in 6 autonomous regions of Spain. Cantabria, Madrid, Galicia, Murcia and La Rioja have been chosen to teach Emotional Intelligence free of charge to more than 70,000 students.

Benefits of Emotional Education in schools

Now, after 10 years of implementation, the first conclusions of this initiative have been collected in the report Emotional and Social Education. International Analysis 2015, where it is clear that the schools and schools that include social skills training in their program have improved in the relations of coexistence between teachers and students, the levels of violence and drug consumption have decreased, and the symptoms related to childhood and juvenile depression.

The social skills that are required and imparted to a greater extent are responsibility, tolerance, creativity, attention, empathy and imagination, values that are present in children by nature, but can be diminished or reinforced by the influence of your environment. Hence, the importance of building and reinforcing them through Emotional education in schools.

News of the report on Emotional and Social Education

This report includes two unique tools in the world, developed by the Botín Foundation, to assess emotional intelligence in childhood and youth. The new ones instruments for the evaluation of Emotional Intelligence in childhood and adolescence, which represent a huge advance in this field, since there are no instruments in Spanish with these characteristics in the world. These instruments have been made thanks to the collaboration of the Botín Foundation with the Emotions Laboratory of the University of Málaga and they allow to know the real impact of educational programs on the emotional capacities of children and young people.

According to their conclusions, the Emotional and Social Education of children and adolescents in the classroom improves the skills to relate, resolve conflicts and face intense emotions.

Specifically, in 2015, the Botín Foundation has applied this knowledge in an educational experience of its own, the program Responsible Education, which is already developed in Spain in 150 educational centers in six Spanish autonomous communities (Cantabria, Madrid, La Rioja, Navarra, Galicia and Murcia), forming the Network of Responsible Education Centers, with very positive results.

The IV "Botín Foundation Report 2015. Emotional and Social Education, International Analysis", has also studied the educational experiences launched in Denmark, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand and Switzerland, since since 2007 the Botín Foundation has focused its efforts on publicize and disseminate the state of emotional and social education in different parts of the world, through reports that analyze significant experiences in these countries.

Marisol New