Handle with Care: Understanding Children’s Emotions, A Field Guide for Parents and Teachers

Citation

Weare, K. (2001), "Handle with Care: Understanding Children’s Emotions, A Field Guide for Parents and Teachers", Health Education, Vol. 101 No. 3, pp. 139-141. https://doi.org/10.1108/he.2001.101.3.139.1

The current drive for academic excellence and high standards in schools is, in some countries such as the UK, causing schools to undervalue the importance of emotional and social learning, convinced that they have not the time to devote to these apparently softer and peripheral issues. However, as recent work by such writers as Goleman and has shown, emotional and social “intelligences” are probably more important than the cognitive intelligences in determining our future succcess in the world. Furthermore, as Maslow showed, we are unlikely to learn effectively if we do not feel good about ourselves, loved and cared for, and emotionally and physically safe. There is now thankfully a small but growing literature on the practice of emotional and social learning in school, and this short but fascinating book by an eminent American psychologist, makes a valuable addition to it. The book focuses on the centrality of emotion in education, and contains a range of vital messages for all who are concerned with children. For example, it suggests that we cannot divorce the emotional needs of children from those of their teachers and parents, and it analyses the ways in which the hearts, minds, motives, fears and joys of pupils, teachers and parents interact with one another, coming together to illuminate one another, or sometimes clashing in misunderstanding. The book underlines the central importance of listening actively to children, and being sensitive and empathic enough to recognise what may be the underlying motive or rationale behind the apparently random or difficult behaviour, looking for the good in the bad, the ray of hope from which to build. The book is however refreshingly open‐eyed about children, recognising that some may indeed be very difficult, and not only those that come from homes that are dysfunctional through neglect and abuse, but also those who have been spoiled by overindulgent parents, giving them everything they ask for and not setting boundaries. So the advice to teachers and parents is to balance love and understanding for children with setting clear and overt limits, within which children can learn to live and work effectively with others, recognising the needs of others as well as having their own needs met. The chapters tackle some difficult issues, such as childhood sexuality, and racism, and are sometimes challenging and provocative. Throughout there is copious illustration through real life case studies, and there are telling anecdotes on nearly every page, which gives the book a realism and immediacy often lacking in psychology texts. At times this can be a little irritating to an academic reader, turning the pages wondering when the underlying point is going to emerge from all the illustrative detail. However the story telling is perhaps a useful antidote to the over‐theorising that can take place on these issues – having established the theory of emotional and social learning we now need to ground it in the everyday world of the classroom, and this the book does admirably.