A number of studies in early childhood classrooms have documented that “self-regulation predicts academic performance in first grade, over and above cognitive skills and family background.” (Examples of these studies: Blair, 2002; Farran, 2010; McClelland, M. M.; Piccinin, A., & Stallings, M. C., 2010; Raver & Knitzer, 2002).

Educators are increasingly becoming aware that social and emotional learning is at least equally as important as academic skill development in schools. They’re also realizing that explicit instruction in both social-emotional and academic skills, when well integrated, can have a dramatic impact on behavior as well as achievement.

This awareness is moving schools to think more profoundly about applying child development knowledge; brain research on executive functioning; and the benefits of kinesthetic learning, music, dance, art, and physical exercise with explicit instruction in social skills into their core curriculum and daily practice.

Recent tragic suicides traced directly to bullying behavior in schools have led states like Massachusetts to enact legislation with strict enforcement and heightened school programming to deal with repeated unregulated behavior of this nature targeted at individual children. In Massachusetts, the legislation also has moved the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to “publish guidelines for the implementation of social and emotional learning curricula in grades kindergarten through 12, inclusive, by June 30, 2011.”

Social and emotional learning can no longer be relegated to the backseat character education slogan of the month or other such superficial feel-good lesson approaches that talk at kids about how they should be behaving. Zero-tolerance, “just say no” approaches to intolerable behavior are also being shown to have less than desirable, if not negative, impacts on school climate, culture, and learning.

Schools can certainly benefit from explicit and conscious curriculum approaches such as Tools of the Mind® in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, the Responsive Classroom® approach in K-6, Open Circle® in K-6, Developmental Designs® in grades 5–9, and programs of the Developmental Studies Center™, K–6. All have developed integrated social and academic instructional approaches over a period of 15 to 30 years.

But whatever approaches schools choose in order to deepen the connection between social and academic growth, in the end, the outcomes in both citizenship and scholarship for the children will depend on the nurturing classroom teachers, staff, and school leaders provide for their students. Hopefully, an emphasis on the whole child and the social-academic connection for positive learning outcomes will provide both encouragement and hope for these adults in their critical work.