Emotional Intelligence: why it matters and how to teach it

by Danica Smith, FoodCorps Garden Educator Manager 

Much of public school is focused on academic achievement, and for various reasons emotions don’t often receive due attention. Emotions are not an inconvenience, but a way to help us reflect, slow down, learn, and heal. How does a school garden support emotional intelligence in children?  School gardens are spaces of abundance, life, beauty, edible treats, creatures, tools, and learning in an untraditional setting where process is honored. In the garden one cannot rush a plant to grow. Everything is accepted how it is, how it looks, how it grows differently from the plant next to it. As a Garden Educator Manager (GEM), I adopt this principle into how the children grow. I want to see, hear, honor all their diverse dreams, fears, problems and emotions. Gardens give time for the diversity and education of real, intense human experiences that children are going through, just like the adults of their world and I get to be that caring, consistent adult that respects them. It is a privilege to elevate students in their journey of life.
Sometimes if a student is having an intense moment or an emotional outburst, I stop and say, “Wow, thank you for being so brave to share your feelings with me/us, that must have taken a lot of courage.” Acknowledging the realness of their emotions, and validating them is important. Then, depending on the group dynamic or activity, I can either find a way to have face to face time with that child, or I can turn it into a learning and connecting moment for the whole group, myself included. Listening to them, I can help identify or label emotions and actions we may wanna do when we feel a certain way, i.e. “I’m so mad I want to hit my friend or slam the garden gate!” All emotions are acceptable, but not all behaviors are. I aid in solution oriented, safe and effective ways that particular child can express their anger/sadness/boredom/etc. while in the school garden, with the hopes this self-regulation will permeate past the garden fence. Gardens add a space, atmosphere, and toolkit for developing and working with emotions, adding a much needed resource to our public schools.  If gardens become more endemic in school communities, like the computer lab, math and the library, then social emotional intelligence education can flourish.

Quick tools for students to learn emotional intelligence within the garden:  

• Peace Tree; when students are having interpersonal conflicts, the Peace Tree is a tree space in the garden where students can have important dialogue about how they feel with another student. “I feel _____ about _____ because _____.” If they’re younger, then an adult can help facilitate the conversation.
• Never telling a student they are “too much,” “calm down,” “spit it out,” or “ stop crying.”
• When students can ask for a break in their indoor classroom, and another adult can escort them to the garden for a 5 minute breather where they can calmly walk and touch/smell plants, see creatures, touch dirt, and breathe fresh air.
• If My Teacher Knew... letters; Students write a letter to their teachers with the first sentence “If my teacher knew…” This tells students that a school adult cares about their unique, human experiences, and gives them a platform to organize parts of themselves they might not share or show at school.
• Fistful of Sounds; Once students shuffle out from their classroom, to the garden classroom, we do fistful of sounds activity. This involves students to find a quiet spot in the garden, close their eyes, and listen to the noises of nature. For every noise they hear, they put up one finger till they get to 5, then they return to the benches and we begin the lesson. This helps them transition and be present, like a reset.

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