Promoting Emotional Literacy: Emotional Literacy Improves and Increases Your Life Chances

Peter Sharp, an Educational Psychologist, explains how Daniel Goleman’s best selling book focused his interest on the idea of emotional literacy; how he found that interest was shared by Southampton’s Education Services Chief Inspector and that, as a result of this, emotional literacy became one of the Authority’s priorities. The wide range of initiatives currently taking place in Southampton are described as the broad way in which the concerns of emotional literacy are interpreted. The Southampton approach has already created interest among other LEAs and there are plans to produce supportive materials. The paper concludes by suggesting the way in which schools might start work in this area.