Why emotional intelligence should be taught in schools

“In a world where AI is very smart and capable of doing so many things, the things that make us human will become much more important.”

These are the words of Daniela Amodei, president and co-founder of Anthropic (the maker of the Claude chatbot) in a recent interview with ABC News.

Employers like Anthropic, she went on to say, as reported in The Times, are looking for recruits with good communication skills who have “excellent emotional intelligence and people skills, who are kind and compassionate and curious”. Businesses (and, as a result, economies) will thrive when employees are able to collaborate, talk to clients and customers, and understand what they really want.

I’m not sure that what we have seen of proposals for our new curriculum entirely reflect this new world we are entering.

Yes, digital and critical literacy feature in the proposals; the curriculum review group understood the need for education to help children and young people evaluate the truth of what AI presents to us.

But the review was undertaken before we had really understood the impact of AI on employment, and there has since been fundamental change in both the opportunities and threats presented by AI.

The rate of that change is exponential, and commentators are now predicting an overhaul of what employment looks like on par with the Industrial Revolution.

The new curriculum

So what does the planned new curriculum need to offer, to meet the future needs of employers?

Communication skills could come via the planned new oracy frameworks, especially if (as I have advocated) the revised spoken language programmes of study include a social and emotional strand, which could cover learning how to initiate and maintain conversations, use talk to work effectively in groups and teams, give and receive feedback, negotiate and resolve differences of opinion, listen to others in an empathic way, and use a range of words to describe emotions.

But such a strand would only work if applied across subjects rather than being confined to the English curriculum. We’d also need to be allowed to once more talk about skills as well as knowledge, and there would have to be time to teach these skills - which would require a reduction in mandated content elsewhere.

There’s also the issue of persuading schools to focus on spoken language when it is not assessed in GCSEs or A levels.

Accountability drives practice, but perhaps a stronger emphasis on student destinations after leaving school within accountability frameworks would encourage secondary schools to find time for this type of oracy work.

It’s worth noting that Alan Milburn’s recent interim report on young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) highlighted a lack of soft skills as the key challenge that employers experience when hiring young people.

Emotional intelligence

The AI revolution does not just imply a need for a focus on communication skills, though. We should also reflect on Anthropic’s requirement of “excellent emotional intelligence” among its recruits.

I lobbied for emotional intelligence (social and emotional skills) to be included in the curriculum review, but it is to be found only in the backwaters of a relationships, sex and health education curriculum that is not prioritised in the majority of schools, and increasingly overloaded with factual content to cover every social issue that hits the news.

Social and emotional skills are teachable. They can be explicitly developed within a dedicated curriculum. Such a curriculum is to be found in many countries, with evidenced impact on a range of outcomes including attainment, according to the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).

Many years ago, under the previous Labour government, I led a national programme to teach these skills, and more recently co-wrote EEF guidance on the subject.

The national programme was called SEAL and covered early years, primary and key stage 3; all its lessons, assemblies, cross-curricular applications, home activities and small group work are still freely available on a website I set up.

The SEAL curriculum goes beyond being aware of and managing your own emotions, which many schools do still work on as part of a wellbeing and mental health focus. It also includes skills that I rarely see systematically developed through a spiral curriculum: seeing others’ perspectives, empathy, getting on with others, dealing with conflicts, joining new groups and meeting new people, respecting differences, setting goals, bouncing back after failure, dealing with change.

Our one USP

It seems to me that these are essential skills for the AI future. They are our USP - our one advantage over the machine. They are what make us uniquely human.

So, is there still time to prioritise social and emotional learning in the new curriculum?

It would be difficult for the government to move away from the safe, “steady as she goes” approach that, in reality, proposes little change from the Gove and Gibb era. A change of plan risks upsetting the many brilliant teachers who have become highly skilled in delivering the current curriculum, thanks to the application of cognitive science.

But we owe it to our children to advocate for change, and we might just have one last chance in the autumn consultation on revised programmes of study to shape a curriculum truly fit for the AI age.

As CS Lewis wrote, “We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. If you have taken a wrong direction, then to go forward does not get you nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about turn and walking back to the right road.”

I very much hope it is not too late to find that road.

Jean Gross CBE is an independent consultant and author of books including Reaching the Unseen Children, Time to Talk and Beating Bureaucracy in Special Educational Needs