Future Leaders

In my writing class, we are required to refer to Daniel Goleman’s book, Emotional Intelligence. Among many other things, the author, a Harvard Ph.D. and professor, finds high IQ scores do not correlate with on how well we do in life. How well individuals interact with others in life depends on how well they were taught about people skills, or emotional intelligence, when young. Because of inadequate emotional education, our children are becoming more violent, aggressive and self-destructive than their peers in the previous generations.

The author wrote Emotional Intelligence in the mid 90's. Today more than a decade later, the society faces the same reality when we see newspapers full of stories on young offenders who committed heinous and violent crimes. Just recently, a Finish vocational school student killed 10 innocent people before setting the school on fire then killed himself.

Perhaps, we, the adults, should be more vigilant on preparing young people to become more apt in emotional skills. So they can face their life challenges intelligently with self-control, empathy, zest and persistence. - Ayee