Can Emotional Intelligence be Taught?

In class, we often talk about what is learned in classrooms and what role do teachers play in students' lives. We have talked about how some of the subject (like volcanoes) don't have a purpose for our future lives and often we memorize facts for tests about topics that won't serve us much good in our future lives. Many people in class said that they learned time management, social skills, and how to study. However, are there other valuable lessons we can learn in school? In the article I read, it discusses emotional intelligences and how teachers are incorporating skills to deal with emotions into daily class. 

Teachers would teach how to deal with emotions from an early grade, recommended kindergarten, in various ways. Some teachers would use games that inherently had a moral code that children would learn and help enforce the code with other students so that peers would correct each other because they knew the difference of right from wrong. In such games, the teacher would step back so that kids could learn how to deal with unfair situations on their own. Children had to use coping mechanisms so that they could calm down and rejoin the game. Children would walk off or would say something to the student that they believed wasn't behaving correctly. Many of the activities that the teachers used would include a time at the end where there was a discussion about how people felt and what should be done differently. This discussion offered up a safe environment for feelings to be discussed neutrally in a non emotionally charged way. 

Teaching emotional intelligence isn't something that can be taught in a lecture. Rather, it must be taught in a way that is absorbed by children. They must learn through experience and interactions with others so that they can understand the best way to deal with emotions for them. Children will learn how to cope and adjust to situations if they have a safe setting where it is encouraged to talk about emotions and strategies for dealing with them. I like how the author gave examples of what lessons could be learned by children if teachers scaffold situations but let the children interact and problem solve. In my class, I definitely want my students to feel comfortable discussing emotions and how to avoid confrontations. Lessons like that will serve the children their entire lives; it will lay the groundwork for the rest of their relationships with other people. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/can-emotional-intelligence-be-taught.html?pagewanted=7&_r=0&ref=education