Social & Emotional Education
At Feynman School, we educate the whole child and nurture the development of multiple forms of intelligence. We know that social intelligence and emotional intelligence are necessary to thrive in this interconnected world and have made the support of these skills one of the cornerstones of our curriculum.
Our social and emotional program is built on the best practices from research in the field of gifted education and is tailored specifically to the unique needs of gifted students. Our teachers honor their students’ advanced intellectual capabilities without forgetting that gifted children are children first and foremost. They understand that along with the thrill of a challenge, gifted children need nurturing and guidance to develop the self-awareness, self-confidence, curiosity, creativity and caring necessary to make the most of their natural gifts.
Feynman School is a community of supportive and caring students built on our core values:
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Perseverance
- Bravery
- Integrity
- Compassion
The backbone of our social and emotional curriculum is one of problem-solving. Our low student-teacher ratio allows us to weave this curriculum throughout the school day. Teachers work with students in real time to address problems, both inter- and intra-personal, as they arise. Teachers support students through the process of identifying the root cause of the issue and brainstorming and testing out possible solutions. We place particular focus on metacognition, helping students to identify their own thought patterns and emotions to develop a strong sense of self-awareness and self-understanding. But knowing how and what is not enough for gifted students; they also need to understand the why. With this in mind, we help our students to learn in an age-appropriate way about the mechanisms behind emotions. In addition, we emphasize with our students the importance of perspective and help them at every opportunity to consider alternate points of view. Our goal is for our students to become independent and compassionate problem-solvers.
