Pub. 2 2012-2013 Issue 2

6 By Ed Woodd, Director, Valley Academy and Dr. Mike Killeen, Vice Principal, Valley Academy Incorporating Emotional Intelligence in the Core Emotional Intelligence as a component of schools Some schools extoll the virtues of character development, others tout in-house programs designed around citizenship, and still others develop partnerships with community organizations toward a unitary goal. The purpose seems universal – students need more sources to learn ethics, values, and the accompanying strategies for behaving in positive, productive ways. Ultimately, educators want students to be accountable for their reactions and subsequent behaviors. At Valley Academy, the foundation is being laid for equipping students with self-knowledge and alternative routes to own their reactions and outcomes. In the last two decades Emotional Intelligence (EI) has received an increasing amount of attention in the fields of psychology, organizational development and education. Salovey &Mayer, the team that identified EI, define it as: “. . . the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought . . . and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth.” Thousands of scholarly articles and studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals and dozens of management books addressing EI have become best sellers in the popular press. In laymen’s terms EI means being smart with feelings, making good decisions and working well with others. Even in this era of increasing reliance on standardized tests and the push for more math