In A Very Real Sense We Have

Educators, Long Disturbed By Schoolchildren's Lagging Scores In Math And Reading, Are Realizing There Is A Different And More Alarming Deficiency: Emotional Literacy. And While Laudable Efforts Are Being Made To Raise Academic Standards, This New And Troubling Deficiency Is Not Being Addressed In The Standard School Curriculum. As One Brooklyn Teacher Put It, The Present Emphasis In Schools Suggests That "we Care More About How Well Schoolchildren Can Read And Write Than Whether They'll Be Alive Next Week."

Buying Phosphate-free Soap Allows You To Say, 'my Detergent Doesn't Have The Harsh Chemicals Others Do.' The Question Is, How Are You Washing With It? The Very Worst Thing For The Earth About Detergent Is That We Heat Water To Use It.

Doggedness Depends On Emotional Traits - Enthusiasm And Persistence In The Face Of Setbacks - Above All Else.

Emotional 'literacy' Implies An Expanded Responsibility For Schools In Helping To Socialize Children. This Daunting Task Requires Two Major Changes: That Teachers Go Beyond Their Traditional Mission And That People In The Community Become More Involved With Schools As Both Active Participants In Children's Learning And As Individual Mentors.

But The Rational Mind Usually Doesn't Decide What Emotions We "should" Have !