Emotional quotient in children for a more fulfilling life

Introduction

In the education world, different research works were carried out in the area of the human brain and behavioral science; and intelligent quotient (IQ) and not emotional quotient was considered as a yardstick for academic achievement and life success a child can go under his or her present IQ.

Discovery of Emotional quotient

However, in 1995 Prof Daniel Goleman came out with a different yardstick which triggered a new debate in the educator’s world. The original idea is that the emotional quotient of a child is more important than IQ. “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ” is a 1995 book by Daniel Goleman. In this book, Goleman emphasized the importance of emotional quotient over intelligent quotient in the area of success in life and academic achievements.

More research

Since 1995 many more educators joined the chorus to put this yardstick as important for nurturing the young minds across all schools. Today almost every school in the Western world has accepted that the emotional intelligence of a child is an area that requires greater involvement of teachers and parents.

All about EQ

The emotional intelligence of a child is governed by five main pillars namely Self Awareness, Self Management, Motivation, Empathy, and Social skills.

First Pillar of EQ

The first part of EQ is to feel the emotions under different situations for example if the child finds something exciting or interesting he/she must feel happy and if they find something uninteresting they experience boredom. Identification of such emotions at the mind level is self-awareness.

Second Pillar of EQ

The second pillar is to manage self-emotion which is required, for example, if the child does not find the behavior of his friend irritating he/she senses their anger and puts effort into controlling it. So, the second part is to identify unwanted emotions and moderate or neutralize it to feel pleasant.

Third Pillar of EQ

The third pillar is to self-motivate with the help of emotions so that work performance and concentration will improve. The fourth one is to feel the emotions of others and share their own emotions accordingly.

Fourth and last Pillar

The last one is to adapt emotions in such a way so as to harmonize social relationships. It follows that the ultimate goal of raising emotional intelligence is to gain the skill to manage social relations at a healthy and pleasing level.

In research, emotional intelligence and social intelligence are used interchangeably because emotional intelligence is a cause and social harmony is the result. This is the last circuitry of the brain to become anatomically mature and because of the neuroplasticity of the brain, it shapes itself according to the experiences gained socially.

Findings

Various research projects were conducted at the school level and various surprising results were found on EQ over IQ in young minds.

Anti-social behavior like indiscipline, disturbance in the classroom, etc. was down by 10 percent and pro-social behavior (helping others, working as a team, etc.) was up by 10 percent, and above all, the academic achievement of children was improved by 11 percent and it was also found in the research that EQ helps the kids learn basic learning skills which are very helpful in academics in the later period.

In other research, it was found that for livelihood, the contribution of IQ was meagrely 10 percent and the rest 90 percent contribution of success was by EQ. Respondents answered that it was their social skills that helped them getting success in their area of work rather than the IQ level achieved through education. It follows from the research that high IQ may be necessary to get admission to good schools, colleges, or universities but in real-life challenges, EQ is one that supports the most.

It is no hidden fact that EQ is an important area that every teacher and parent needs to work on.

Srimad Bhagwad Gita

There are various ways of imbibing or inculcating social intelligence in young minds. “Shrimad Bhagwad Gita,” The holiest book of humanity says that to raise the consciousness of the mind to a higher level equanimity of mind is necessary and so to raise the emotional intelligence of young minds yogic meditations are very much required.

Please view the article on meditation here

Research also shows that meditation is one important tool that may help tremendously in raising this intelligence.

Involvements

The involvement of parents at every level of a child’s emotional conflict is a way to expand the emotional consciousness of a child.

Be it anger or joy or boredom, the meaning and importance of emotional expressions need to be explained and identified to a child.

In many schools, various activities are promoted to raise the emotional consciousness of the child. Like the making of a mood meter, the use of smiley, soft toys robotic toys, etc. Even separate faculty is appointed to supervise such fun-based activities.

Students counseling at the teachers and parents level are also conducted to raise the level of understanding. It is seen that if the emotional intelligence of a child is well aligned and matched with his intelligent quotient, it may prove a boon in the academic achievement and career success of a child.