I have always wondered why SEL is not approached from a whole school perspective. Schools have growth plans for academic areas (such as literacy and numeracy), but I have never worked at, or had friends who worked at, schools that had growth plans for SEL and school culture/connection. I don’t understand why this would be the case. If a whole school approach was taken with SEL, then children would be receiving common learning and language, and it could be built upon year-to-year, rather than having SEL addressed inconsistently throughout the school years. Teachers in similar grades could collaborate and develop common approaches, programming, and goals for the students in those grades; this could extend from kindergarten through grade 12. Older students could also take a leadership role and work with younger students to teach and role model SEL skills and strategies. A side effect of this approach could be a school with a solid sense of student connection, and of collegial community- which would only benefit and reinforce a sense of community for the students. Further, I believe that both students and teachers should belong to the whole school. By this I mean that all teachers in a school should be responsible to connect with all students, not just the ones they teach. I know this would likely be easiest in an elementary setting, but efforts could still be made in high school- even a “Hi” and a smile is connecting. This connects teachers and students to each other and the school as a whole. That would create a foundation of school connection, which the SEL skills could then be built upon. School connection + direct and purposeful teaching and attention to SEL = more resilient students. And that is exactly what we are striving for.