Why Schools are Teaching Social Skills

by mommytotwo | More from this Blogger

16 Oct 2006 05:47 AM

It seems gone are the days in which teachers just teach the basics: math, reading, science, and social studies. Now it is also important that teachers teach social skills. What happened to the days when parents just teach the basic right and wrong at home? What happened to the day when parents preached what was socially acceptable?

It seems that those skills, at least by how a portion of the teen population and younger are acting, are not being taught by some parents, thus schools must take on the teaching of these necessary social skills. Don't get me wrong, there are many kids being raised these days to know these skills and to use them, however, there is a huge rise in numbers of children who simply aren't taught them at home. When I was growing up, it was a given that parents would teach these skills, that is not the case anymore. Let's face it, kids need to have good social skills if they want to be successful in life. These are important skills every child must have.

Now that schools have been and often times, must teach social skills, just what are the important skills that schools should be teaching? First, let's talk manners. If kids aren't being taught manners at home, then schools must do it. Schools are teaching kids the basics, simply saying please and thank you when asking for things or when receiving things. Teachers must often practice with students how to use these words and when to use them. Any moment is a teaching moment at a school, so teachers are able to do this type of mini-lesson often. Teachers often are also able to talk to their entire class about how it feels to be polite and each student feels when someone is polite to them.

Schools and teachers today are also teaching students how to respond to peers and others in certain situations. Students should be taught how to act so that they may be successful in life. Stemming from how to get good grades to how to act on a date or how to have a successful job interview, teachers often are teaching these skills at school. Role-playing and classroom discussions are often good ways to get kids talking, acting and enjoying learning about these topics.

One problem with today's schools is that teachers are often criticized for not doing enough with the core subjects or finding enough time to meet the standards of The No Child Left Behind movement. Many people who aren't in the classroom don't understand that teachers in today's schools aren't just teaching the basics. Teachers must also teach social skills (besides the many other issues teachers must deal with) and fit those lessons in when they can. It can be tough, but today's students more than ever seem to need these social skills lessons, because quite frankly, they aren't learning them elsewhere. Thus, it falls on the schools to do it.

I will admit, when I was teaching I taught social skills class everyday. However, I also taught special education students with behavior problems. It was written in each and everyone of my student's IEP's (Individualized Education Program) that my students must have social skills training daily. I loved teaching that class; it was my favorite class to teach out of every subject.

It is fun learning social skills and it is fun teaching them. I don't however, think that general classroom teachers need to have the added burden of actually having to teach these skills as a class, because there just isn't enough time. Unfortunately, now more than ever more and more students need to learn these skills because they just aren't getting them elsewhere.

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Megan Bayliss (3586) 16 Oct 2006 06:00 AM

TOUCHE Kaye. Not every family is capable of teaching social skills. Not every family is similar to the many families here at families.com. I am heartened to see that some teachers still teach social skills, despite a parental movement that dictates that these skills should only be taught by parents. Should this be the case, our kids will be schooling with many kids without the very basic skills for surviving society.

Valorie Delp (49340) 16 Oct 2006 07:17 AM

Just a thought but at what point does the need to teach social skills out weigh the need to teach the basics. What good is it to have a polite illiterate? At our local public school "social skills" class has fallen on the lunch room aides because the kids there (as a whole) are so far behind in other basic skills. I think it's very sad because the lunch room aides themselves could often use a course in manners 101. Not that I disagree with you at all. . .it's just been an interesting shift in thought here in even the last 5 years.

Tristi Pinkston (10839) 16 Oct 2006 08:09 AM

It just goes to show how very valuable parental involvement is. You can always tell a child from a home with involved parents from a child whose parents are disconnected.

mommytotwo (526) 16 Oct 2006 08:52 AM

Thanks for your comments! Valorie, I get what you are saying about the need to teach social skills shouldn't outweigh the need to teach the basics. However, it is sometimes darn near impossible to even teach the basics to a bunch of kids who have no social skills. Kids without social skills disrupt class and interfere with learning, therefore a teacher is constantly stopping class to focus on the students with the social skills issues. Because of this occurring so often, schools are now seeing the need to teach social skills so that the basic skills are then able to be taught. It really stinks, because you are right, what good is a polite illiterate, but unfortunately it is hard to teach the basics to kids with no social skills.

Valorie Delp (49340) 16 Oct 2006 11:04 AM

Oh Kaye--I agree. It's like a catch 22 depending on your classroom situation. In an ideal world I suppose we could have manners 101 outside of class. . .maybe kick the kids out who have such poor manners (euphamism here ;-) that they inhibit the learning for everyone else. Then when they've passed etiquette they can come back. LOL--I know--it would never happen!

diligent (51) 17 Oct 2006 08:20 PM

Good point about there already being more than enough subject area content without adding something new like social skills. However... you can't get away from social learning anytime you put any number of people together. Part of the problem, as you allude, is that parents aren't teaching the skills that should be very basic. Add to that bit of negligence the bad behavior seen in sitcoms, music videos and even news programming, and it becomes less suprising that we have children that do not know how to act in public. Back to the class room - teachers have the awesome responsibility to model socially and morally acceptable, even preferred behavior. Teachers have the opportunity to model intelligent inquiry and discourse. Teachers can also model what hard work and perserverance are. The good news is that this is done while teaching content and not from some specialized curriculum. Its all a part of being salt and light.