Professor Shelley Hymel:

I do not know if I can tell the Senator what the ideal school is but I can give some examples. Role play is important but it has to be done well. There has been some great success incorporating socio-emotional learning in drama. We have had people go in and work with students so students have a voice in creating plays and activities they do with younger children which allow for that more intense working out of what to do in a certain situation. There is a way to do that.

I see schools adopting socio-emotional learning and teachers taking it to heart. In our province, each school has counsellors and that is separate from what they call a social-emotional champion. We meet every month with representatives from several school districts who talk, exchange ideas or whatever. We need time to talk, exchange strategies and activities and work together. Those things operate to begin to create really wild things.

The other thing we have done that has been effective is bibliographies. Many great books can be used. I love the diversity of approaches. Different teachers will feel comfortable or uncomfortable with different approaches. The more we give them the capacity and the capital to take all sorts of different approaches, the more likely we will reach some of those kids and create those environments.