Educators who believe in the importance of social and emotional learning know the place to begin each new school year is by raising students’ self-awareness. This means helping all students identify early on what is best in themselves, and then working to help them call this forth each and every day going forward.
In Thriving Learning Communities schools, teachers accomplish this critical work through the introduction and reinforcement of each student’s 24 character strengths. Easily understood by all ages and research-based, students quickly grasp the language of strengths and the concept that they have their own combination of character strengths that makes them incredibly unique.
“I love the character strengths. That’s a huge component of what we need to offer kids. Embracing their uniqueness is huge.”
– Sara Bidlingmeyer Teacher, Hyde Park School
With this firm foundation, students are ready to tackle the challenges they will encounter as they call forth “what is strong” in themselves and their classmates, as opposed to “what is wrong.”
To learn more about how two urban, Midwest schools have deployed this strategy and are beginning to see improvements in students’ motivation and engagement in school, check out our recent case study, Amplifying Student Strengths: Students Thrive as they Explore Strengths Within Themselves and Others.
