Why We Teach It This Way

The Heart Curriculum is based on research about how children and teens learn to understand emotions, cope with stress, build relationships, and ask for help. Social and emotional skills can be taught in schools, especially when students have opportunities to actively practice them and when learning is supported by teachers and the wider school environment (Oberle & Schonert-Reichl, 2017; Shi & Cheung, 2024).

The research tells us that these skills are learned through practice, not simply through being told what to do. That is why lessons include discussion, reflection, movement, stories, and opportunities for students to try different strategies (Hoffmann et al., 2020; Shi & Cheung, 2024).

The curriculum also recognizes that there is no single “right” way to feel or cope. A strategy that helps in one situation may not be the best fit in another. Students build a tet, or basket, of strategies and learn to notice what they need, try an approach, see whether it helps, and change course when needed (Haag et al., 2024; Trudel-Fitzgerald et al., 2024).

The curriculum grows with students. Younger students learn through concrete examples, visuals, stories, movement, and guided practice. As students grow, they are ready for greater reflection, more complex emotional language, perspective-taking, and more independence in choosing how to respond (Compas et al., 2001; Hoffmann et al., 2020; Malti et al., 2016).

Across every grade level, the goal is the same: help students better understand themselves, respond flexibly to challenges, understand others, and know when and how to seek support.