Teens Measure Their Emotional IQ
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Kamey Gomez
wants to look pulled together
each morning when she's getting
ready for school.
It's a world away
from her stressful home life.
But it's brought
some surprising stresses
of its own.
[BELL RINGS]
KAMEY GOMEZ: I was used to being around people that looked like me, lived in the same neighborhood, had similar interests. I was sad for a long time. It was so hard for me to make friends.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Did you think, like, this is not for me, as you walked through the hallways?
KAMEY GOMEZ: Yes. Um--
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Every day?
KAMEY GOMEZ: Every day.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Fellow students Miles Patricof and Olivia Kupiec brought a different kind of stress to school.
MILES PATRICOF: My parents, they want me to go to the most prestigious college possible. They want me to get the best grades possible and want me to work as hard as I can. They expect me to be stressed. And then I come to school, and they're asking me to reflect on my day.
TEACHER: Where do you place yourself on our Mood Meter?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Their feelings weren't a secret at the Lab School. It's one of New York City's most competitive. Checking in on emotions is part of their daily routine.
KAMEY GOMEZ: I'm at, like, a 3 negative 1.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The strategy, called Social Emotional Learning, or SEL, teaches kids to understand and manage emotions, to feel and show empathy, build relationships, and to problem-solve.
So this is a thing we saw in the English class. This is the Mood Meter.
BROOKE JACKSON: This is the Mood Meter.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Lab School principal Brooke Jackson believes the approach helps students reach their full academic potential.
BROOKE JACKSON: If you can identify, give language to how you're feeling, then you're much more likely to be able to manipulate your own emotional state.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: So do you think it helps you do better?
OLIVIA KUPIEC: I feel more engaged when I have a teacher who-- she knows my emotions. And I think that really correlates to how you do in that class, or how you feel about that class.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Social emotional learning is gaining traction across the country. With numerous programs implemented in thousands of schools, measuring success is tricky, and SEL has mixed reviews. Yet there is mounting evidence that the right program, properly integrated, yields academic rewards. Congress has even allowed funding for SEL in the new education law.
MARC BRACKETT: How's everybody feeling?
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Good. Good.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Marc Brackett is director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. He developed [? RULER, ?] one of several dozen evidence-based SEL programs.
MARC BRACKETT: After one year of implementing the work, academic performance goes up by about 10%, that student's behavior shifts in positive ways, that the interactions between and among teachers and students just become more positive.
LADY GAGA: There's all sorts of research that show that kids need an outlet in order to express their pain. And so we shouldn't ignore that pain. I just wanted to--
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That's Lady Gaga. The pop star is also an activist, shining a spotlight on research by Brackett and the Yale Center. The findings demonstrate why students need to manage their emotions.
KAMEY GOMEZ: You know, I didn't know there was people who cared about emotions. But because--
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Kamey was among the 22,000 students from across the country that participated. Tired, bored, and stressed were the top three emotions students said they felt in school. They said they were bored 78% of the time and stressed 80% of the time.
MARC BRACKETT: If you are feeling intense amount of stress, the neural pathways are being, in many ways, utilized to manage the stress. You're thinking about the way out. You're thinking about, well, how I'm going to survive?
How am I-- who's going to be my friend? How am I going to get home safely? How am I going to go to college? And when your brain is obsessed with that kind of thinking, it's not available for learning.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: For the students at Lab, managing their emotions has made way for learning.
KAMEY GOMEZ: Of course I know what emotions were. I knew if I was upset. But to reflect on it is taking it to a completely different level.
MILES PATRICOF: I'm not forcing myself to be happy 100% of the time. It's recognizing when I am angry or upset and learning how to channel that, and figuring out what I need to do to be able to succeed.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's a strategy that's helped Kamey through a rough transition.
And now, as you walk these halls as a senior, does it feel like this is home?
KAMEY GOMEZ: It does feel like a home.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You feel like you fit?
KAMEY GOMEZ: Yeah.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: For WebMD, I'm Soledad O'Brien. [MUSIC PLAYING]
[BELL RINGS]
KAMEY GOMEZ: I was used to being around people that looked like me, lived in the same neighborhood, had similar interests. I was sad for a long time. It was so hard for me to make friends.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Did you think, like, this is not for me, as you walked through the hallways?
KAMEY GOMEZ: Yes. Um--
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Every day?
KAMEY GOMEZ: Every day.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Fellow students Miles Patricof and Olivia Kupiec brought a different kind of stress to school.
MILES PATRICOF: My parents, they want me to go to the most prestigious college possible. They want me to get the best grades possible and want me to work as hard as I can. They expect me to be stressed. And then I come to school, and they're asking me to reflect on my day.
TEACHER: Where do you place yourself on our Mood Meter?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Their feelings weren't a secret at the Lab School. It's one of New York City's most competitive. Checking in on emotions is part of their daily routine.
KAMEY GOMEZ: I'm at, like, a 3 negative 1.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The strategy, called Social Emotional Learning, or SEL, teaches kids to understand and manage emotions, to feel and show empathy, build relationships, and to problem-solve.
So this is a thing we saw in the English class. This is the Mood Meter.
BROOKE JACKSON: This is the Mood Meter.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Lab School principal Brooke Jackson believes the approach helps students reach their full academic potential.
BROOKE JACKSON: If you can identify, give language to how you're feeling, then you're much more likely to be able to manipulate your own emotional state.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: So do you think it helps you do better?
OLIVIA KUPIEC: I feel more engaged when I have a teacher who-- she knows my emotions. And I think that really correlates to how you do in that class, or how you feel about that class.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Social emotional learning is gaining traction across the country. With numerous programs implemented in thousands of schools, measuring success is tricky, and SEL has mixed reviews. Yet there is mounting evidence that the right program, properly integrated, yields academic rewards. Congress has even allowed funding for SEL in the new education law.
MARC BRACKETT: How's everybody feeling?
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Good. Good.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Marc Brackett is director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. He developed [? RULER, ?] one of several dozen evidence-based SEL programs.
MARC BRACKETT: After one year of implementing the work, academic performance goes up by about 10%, that student's behavior shifts in positive ways, that the interactions between and among teachers and students just become more positive.
LADY GAGA: There's all sorts of research that show that kids need an outlet in order to express their pain. And so we shouldn't ignore that pain. I just wanted to--
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That's Lady Gaga. The pop star is also an activist, shining a spotlight on research by Brackett and the Yale Center. The findings demonstrate why students need to manage their emotions.
KAMEY GOMEZ: You know, I didn't know there was people who cared about emotions. But because--
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Kamey was among the 22,000 students from across the country that participated. Tired, bored, and stressed were the top three emotions students said they felt in school. They said they were bored 78% of the time and stressed 80% of the time.
MARC BRACKETT: If you are feeling intense amount of stress, the neural pathways are being, in many ways, utilized to manage the stress. You're thinking about the way out. You're thinking about, well, how I'm going to survive?
How am I-- who's going to be my friend? How am I going to get home safely? How am I going to go to college? And when your brain is obsessed with that kind of thinking, it's not available for learning.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: For the students at Lab, managing their emotions has made way for learning.
KAMEY GOMEZ: Of course I know what emotions were. I knew if I was upset. But to reflect on it is taking it to a completely different level.
MILES PATRICOF: I'm not forcing myself to be happy 100% of the time. It's recognizing when I am angry or upset and learning how to channel that, and figuring out what I need to do to be able to succeed.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's a strategy that's helped Kamey through a rough transition.
And now, as you walk these halls as a senior, does it feel like this is home?
KAMEY GOMEZ: It does feel like a home.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You feel like you fit?
KAMEY GOMEZ: Yeah.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: For WebMD, I'm Soledad O'Brien. [MUSIC PLAYING]