Escalating in-school violence. Grinding demand for “college-worthy” achievement that afflicts even first-graders these days. Disintegrating families. Natural disasters. Peer pressure.
Some kids survive – and thrive. Others do not. Why? And most important to parents, teachers, or anyone who touches the life of a child: What can one do about it?
I’ve just been handed a manuscript for Building Emotional Intelligence: Techniques to Cultivate Inner Strength in Children by Linda Lantieri. This book, coming in April 2008, tackles both questions, and delivers easy-to-follow practices that help children learn how to roll gracefully with life’s punches and grow into healthy, emotionally strong adults. Guess what’s going on my must-give list to every parent I know?
“It’s all about inner resiliency,” says author Linda Lantieri, founding member of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), cofounder of the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program, a George Lucas Educational Foundation Fellow, and a forty-year veteran of New York City Public Schools
Inner resiliency is the “emotionally intelligent” ability to quiet the mind, calm the body, and identify and manage emotions. Lantieri makes teaching these skills to children virtually foolproof. She includes lessons plans complete with scripts cued to the accompanying CD, arranged according to age group. Adults learn how to incorporate environments and schedules into busy family life that anchor and encourage the practices. My favorite: “The Quiet Corner.”
What does teaching children to be resilient have to do with Sounds True’s guiding mission of disseminating spiritual wisdom? Well…everything.
The skills Lantieri teaches are rooted in mindfulness meditation practice. What wisdom could be more enduring, more effective, or more useful to the generation that is preparing to inherit the earth?
One delightful bonus: Daniel Goleman reads the guided exercises on the accompanying CD. Says Shelly Vickroy, our Associate Director of Marketing, “He sounds like the papa in Little Bear on Nickelodeon.” The little ones will love the “breathing buddy on the tummy.” Listen to a sample.
Look for Linda Lantieri in the Jan. 08 issue of O: The Oprah Magazine, speaking about how to resolve conflict creatively.
Building Emotional Intelligence manuscripts are available – please let me know if you’d like one.
