Social and Emotional Learning

Community Day School places particular importance on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) as part of a student's daily life. This provides an opportunity to put Jewish values into action, traits such as the importance of having integrity and honor (menschlichkeit), a commitment to doing good in the world (tikkun olam), avoiding gossip (lashon ha-ra) and bullying, a desire for peace (shalom), and a dedication to social justice (tzedakah).

SEL helps children and adults to understand and manage emotions, with goal-setting and achievement, healthy relationships, and decision-making. As communities become more multicultural and multilingual, with students from diverse social and economic backgrounds, SEL provides a strong foundation for safe and effective learning, as well as positive interpersonal relationships.

In a Jewish day school, SEL is right at home alongside our educational philosophy and Judaic curriculum. When children feel respected and loved in the classroom, they will be much more willing to take risks and try difficult tasks. They will look out for fellow classmates. The best way to create an environment of trust and respect is by overtly teaching kids about how to be part of a community of learners.

Community Day School employs a variety of techniques for teaching students how to be part of a community. Every grade begins with "advisory" at the beginning of the day. Students and teachers take this time to get to know each other, sharing everything from favorite foods to the hardest moment in a person's life. Through advisory, students discover and learn to accept similarities and differences among their classmates. As students learn more about emotions, they discover how to explore ways they can identify and predict those feelings, as well as healthy coping skills when facing a challenging circumstance.