You must have come across the term “Emotional Intelligence (EQ)” in advertisements, in school prospectuses, on digital platforms, etc. You may even wonder what is the importance of emotional intelligence for students and how different it is from the traditional, limited perception of “intelligence” in terms of knowledge and information.
Let’s delve into this very important kind of intelligence for students which the best schools in India go after.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, understand, evaluate, and manage one’s emotions. It might seem easy to acquire this ability, but it takes a lot of continued effort on the part of parents, teachers, society, and the child himself/herself to actually cultivate emotional intelligence. However, the sooner the children in school become emotionally intelligent, the better they are likely to do in school, at home, and in life.
How Emotional Intelligence is Different from Social Intelligence?
Social intelligence (SQ) is a concept that is closely related to emotional intelligence. However, there are some key differences between social intelligence and emotional intelligence for students.
Social intelligence is concerned with interpersonal skills, i.e., social intelligence involves the way one can stay self-assured in social situations and know what to say and how to act upon the feelings, opinions, and actions of other people.
On the other hand, emotional intelligence is concerned with intrapersonal skills, i.e., emotional intelligence for children in school involves the way they understand their emotions and cope with them. It is to act upon their own feelings and opinions, so to say, in the best positive manner.
So, What is the Importance of Emotional Intelligence for Students?
The best schools in India organize extra-curricular activities on a regular basis and keep on discovering new ways to inculcate emotional intelligence in students. Now, why is that, there are many reasons for that, or more precisely—benefits.
- When the kid’s formal education prepares them emotionally, kids are less likely to get offended over trivial issues.
- Kids develop a positive attitude and do better in academics and their life.
- They begin to take failures positively and see them as opportunities.
- Formal education inculcates problem-solving skills in the kids by making them emotionally intelligent.
- Kids start predicting how a certain thing will make the other person feel, so they will become better human beings through emotional intelligence.
- Not only academics but co-curricular activities, trips, excursions, and meaningful conversations with the parents and teachers can also help the kids develop emotional intelligence, and this all will help them improve their communication skills.
- Kids will learn how to channel their energy from anger or frustration into some work that is creative and productive.
- They will learn to overcome their insecurities, fears, and vulnerabilities when they will become aware of their emotions intelligently.
- Children in school will learn to cope with anxieties and stress through emotional intelligence.
There are many such benefits of emotional intelligence for students.
But the core of the issue is that even a top 10+2 school is not enough when it comes to developing emotional intelligence in kids. It requires the collaborative effort of everyone surrounding the kid and the kid oneself to develop emotional intelligence.
And after this happens, emotional intelligence does the magic.