Social Skills and School

School is not just about reading, writing and arithmetic.  There are so many more things that go into the school experience.  Social skills are basically being able to sense other people's emotional states and reacting appropriately.  Also for children it is about being able to control and react reasonably to their own emotions.  Group work, team sports or activities, sitting at the lunch table, making friends, showing respect toward teachers and classmates and good classroom behavior are all dependant on a person's social skills.  I think we have all met someone who is super intelligent, but not easy to work/get along with.  We have also met someone who is not really intelligent, but very easy to work/get along with.  The fact is that I think we sometimes spend too much emphasis on the school work and let some of the behavior issues slide.  We focus on everything we need to cover, curriculum wise, in the allotted time more so than stopping to address the social skill development of the students.