A national summit on mental health and social emotional learning is drawing education leaders from across the country to the University of Pittsburgh this week, drawing on the wisdom of Fred Rogers and Goldie Hawn.
The Oct. 22-24 conference, hosted by Pitt’s School of Education and the School Superintendents Association, is focused on addressing K-12 students’ mental and social wellbeing in the post-COVID-19 pandemic landscape. One hundred fifty superintendents and district leaders from around the country are expected to attend.
“I think we have to be cognizant of the fact that these things are part of our learning, they’re inherent,” said Bart Rocco, an assistant professor in Pitt’s School of Education and Director of the Tri-State Area School Study Council, who helped organize the event, “Social emotional development is part of human development. And we need to build those opportunities for that to occur in classrooms.”
In addition to learning loss, the pandemic’s psychological toll on children and teens has been widely reported — particularly increased rates of anxiety and depression.
The event will specifically look at how school leaders can weave mental health and social emotional learning into Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), an education framework based on layered methods of academic, behavioral, and social emotional interventions that has been implemented at districts nationwide. MTSS is a critical strategy to help students with varying needs, said Rocco.
“We need to look at those strengths and weaknesses of children and provide opportunities for them to not only grow intellectually with the subject matter that they're learning, but also to be comfortable with who they are, what they are in the world, but more importantly in the schools so that they can be successful in their learning,” said Rocco.
Professional development opportunities, like the summit, are necessary to prepare educators for the dynamic and evolving needs of students, said Rocco. Topics like mental health and social emotional learning in education have drawn some criticism, he said, but he believes those critics are misguided.
“What we're saying is for kids to come to the learning environment, we have to create cultures where they feel belonging and a sense of connectedness to their school, their teachers, then which breathes into their families, in their communities. It's all together,” said Rocco, “We're partners in this. We're not we're not trying to change someone's person. We're just trying to understand that, if we have a toolbox of things that can help kids be successful in their academics, and we care about children, then we should use those skills.”
The summit’s agenda includes sessions that highlight emotional education techniques of Fred Rogers to how artificial intelligence might be harnessed to help promote mental health in classrooms. Speakers include representatives from Forbes, the Grable Foundation, the Cook Center for Human Connection, Wonder Media, and a concluding video recording from actress Goldie Hawn.
