Product Description

What's the most important piece of your child's educational program? If you think it's math, science, or grammar, you might be overlooking an element that is fast becoming essential in today's stressful world: cultivating inner resiliency. In Building Emotional Intelligence, pioneering educator Linda Lantieri joins forces with internationally renowned psychologist Daniel Goleman to offer a breakthrough guide for helping children quiet their minds, calm their bodies, and identify and manage their emotions. Now available to the public for the first time, here are Lantieri's proven techniques arranged according to age group, complemented by a spoken-word CD with exercises presented by Goleman. "We need a new vision of education that includes the mind and the heart," says Lantieri. With Building Emotional Intelligence, parents, teachers, and caregivers have the tools necessary to help build these invaluable skills in the children they raise.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15111 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 155 pages

From the Publisher
"Building Emotional Intelligence will be a welcome resource for parents and teachers seeking to teach children to slow down and listen to their inner voices."--Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children's Defense Fund

"We all know kids struggle with stress. Now, Building Emotional Intelligence tells us how to help. Lantieri's simple but powerful exercises will help you inoculate your child with crucial coping skills to face a range of life challenges."--Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls

"This is the best book I know to help children learn inner-life practices that can strengthen and sustain them. A moving mix of compassion, skillful means, and wisdom that can support young people growing up in a perilous but still promising world."--Parker J. Palmer, author of The Courage to Teach

"In this collaboration, Linda Lantieri and Dan Goleman form a dream team to help children discover and refine their deep inner capacities for well-being, calmness, relaxation, and emotional intelligence. Their program is a marvelous way for parents and their children to adventure together to build inner strengths and resiliency in dealing with the many stresses that children face in their daily lives." --Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D, Founding Director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society

"This book is critically needed at this important time in education in the United States. Schools have been consumed with improving children's math and literacy skills, but too often have neglected the important impact of strong social and emotional learning skills."--Carol Comeau, Superintendent, Anchorage School District & Chair, Executive Committee, the Council of Great City Schools

"What a gift Linda Lantieri and Daniel Goleman give to children with Building Emotional Intelligence! The wonderful and appealing exercises and activities promise to cultivate in children a deep reserve of calm and inner resilience that will sustain them now and for the rest of their lives."--Nancy Carlsson-Paige, author of Taking Back Childhood

"A comprehensive guide with practical exercises for parents and their children to calm the body and focus the mind. Using principles derived from modern brain research, Linda Lantieri has created a novel curriculum that promises to be enormously helpful in building a foundation for a successful life by cultivating skills in managing disturbing emotions, increasing empathy and cooperation and instilling calmness. This book and accompanying CD will be of interest to all parents who wish their children to be happy and successful."--Richard J. Davidson, Director, Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, University of Wisconsin-Madison

About the Author
Linda Lantieri is a Fulbright Scholar, keynote speaker, and internationally known expert in social and emotional learning, conflict resolution, intergroup relations, and crisis intervention. Currently she serves as the Director of The Inner Resilience Program (formerly Project Renewal), a project of the Tides Center, which is an initiative that equips school personnel with the skills and strategies to strengthen their inner resiliency in order to model these skills for the young people in their care.

Lantieri is cofounder of the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP), which is being implemented at 400 schools in 15 school districts in the United States, with pilot sites in Brazil and Puerto Rico. Started in 1985, RCCP is now one of the largest and longest running research-based school (K-8) programs in social and emotional learning in United States. Linda is also one of the founding board members of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). CASEL's mission is to establish social and emotional learning as an essential part of education from preschool through high school worldwide.

Lantieri has more than 35 years of experience in education as a former teacher, assistant principal, director of an alternative middle school in East Harlem, and faculty member of the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Hunter College in New York City. She has served as a death education consultant to a number of institutions, including the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the New York City Public Schools, where she trained the first Crisis Response Teams in 1988. Linda is a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress from the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress.

Her honors include:

- National Education Association-designated Educational Innovator

- The Richard R. Green Distinguished Educator Award

- Spirit of Crazy Horse Award for "creating courage in discouraged youth"

- The International Education and Resource Network (iEARN) 2001 Making a Difference Award

- Senior Scholar at the Fetzer Institute, a nonprofit organization that supports research and education in the relationship between body, mind, and spirit

- Fellow of the George Lucas Educational Foundation - Senior Educational Advisor for the Don't Laugh At Me Project of Operation Respect, which was founded by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary

Customer Reviews

the educational tool I've been waiting for
As an elementary school counselor for over twenty years I have been looking for effective resources to share with students, parents and teachers that are practical and support the teaching of foundational self-regulation skills. Building Emotional Intelligence is the perfect developmental guide for both educators and parents in this respect, as it is very user-friendly and easy to implement with children of all ages.

The chapters are arranged in developmental stages and clearly describe simple activities appropriate for each school age. The actitivies are also provided in the accompanying CD, which is an ingenious way to support their intended application. My students have been loving the self-calming and focusing exercises on the CD, which have stimulated meaningful discussion. After doing one of the listening exercises on the CD this week, one kindergartener said,'When I feel lonely, I listen to my heart beat and then I know I'm not alone'. A guidance counselor couldn't ask for a more engaged outcome.

Our goal is to share this book with as many teachers and parents in our area as possible. One of our esteemed parents has said about it, 'This could change the world!'. Thank you, Linda, for this much-needed inner, as well as outer, peace tool.

Building Emotional Intelligence
I am a Guidance Counselor at a private school in Miami Florida. Building Emotional Intelligence is a must have book that offers clear strategies to support children in becoming resilient and coping with a fast paced and sometimes stressful world. I have been using the activities and the CD by Daniel Goleman since I read it. My students have really enjoyed the CD and benefitted by the activities offered. I've recommended it to several parents with children who need support coping with day to day stresses and it is great to have a book which I can confidently recommend. It is concisely written and in a format that is easy to access by age group.
This is the kind of book I wished I had when I was raising my children who are now in their twenties. This is a must have for Guidance Counselors and parents.

Both Powerfully Inspiring and Totally Practical
I finally had a chance to read Building Emotional Intelligence and found it a refreshing dose of "this is what matters" with a special kid-focused twist. It's absolutely wonderful--so moving and totally practical in a way that will undoubtedly inspire to many parents, teachers, and students. Brava!