Governor Dannel P. Malloy has issued a proclamation declaring the week of July 28-July 5, 2015 Social and Emotional Learning Awareness Week.

The timing of the proclamation was done to coincide with what would have been the ninth birthday of Jesse Lewis on June 30. Jesse was one of the children killed on 12/14.

“This is a JesseLewisChooseLove.org initiative, and we are working towards teaching children to choose love,” said Jesse’s mother, Scarlett Lewis.

According to Edutopia, a foundation dedicated to improving public schools with resources, tools and solutions for teachers, administrators and parents, SEL creates a healthy school culture by helping students develop skills to manage their emotions, resolve conflicts, and make responsible decisions.

“SEL is the most powerful preventative and proactive mental health initiative we have,” Ms Lewis told The Bee. “The Child Advocate Report following [the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School] cited the lack of SEL and the fact that this could prevent future tragedies.”

Ms Lewis has been urging school systems to embrace SEL since shortly after the shootings that took the life of her youngest son and 19 other children, along with six women. She has been promoting the concept through The Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation, she said, after finding the message left on a chalkboard in the kitchen by her late son that said Nurturing Healing Love.

“Nurturing Healing Love is actually a formula for choosing love,” she said. “Nurturing is loving kindness and gratitude, healing means forgiveness, and love is compassion in action.

“When you practice those character values in order,” she continued, “you are choosing love!”

The governor’s proclamation points out, among other points, that addressing the “complex mental health needs of children, youth, and families today is fundamental to the future of the State of Connecticut…children’s mental health disorders affect children of all ages, genders, races, and backgrounds, and an estimated 13 to 20 percent of our nation’s youth can be diagnosed with a mental health disorder in a given year.”

The proclamation declares that “social and emotional learning is an increasingly important process for learning fundamental life skills, including how to recognize and manage emotions, how to deal with oneself and others in a positive relationship, and building compassion and empathy for others.”

It also states that “social and emotional learning can have a positive impact on school climate by promoting academic achievement, social awareness, and emotional growth…[and] by bringing attention to social and emotional learning, we raise awareness for its importance in the growth and development of our nation’s children.”

The Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation wants to make sure every child has access to this type of learning, said Ms Lewis.

“We are releasing a Choose Love Enrichment Program mid-August that contains the foundational concepts of SEL and the latest neuroscience focusing on the benefits to the child,” she said.

“We all just want to love and be loved yet we don’t teach how to do this in school?” she added. “We teach anti-bullying, drug awareness, suicide prevention even, yet no class of choosing love. It seems simple — and it is.”