This article was published in the World Education Fellowship 17 th Newsletter December 2025.
I was the principal of a small school with about 600 students closely held together with strong values and an informal way of teaching. I remember the day vividly. A workshop for children was held in the hall and I was at the venue. Suddenly one of my teachers came in rushing saying one girl let’s name her Krisha, was missing. A search party was launched. The security at the gate was certain she had not gone out. After a tense search we found her in the toilet crouching down sobbing uncontrollably. When I took her to my cabin, she replied that she didn’t know why she was crying. Parents were called, she was treated for depression. She was given all the concessions that were suggested by the consulting psychiatrist. She recovered and went on to be the top ranker in the school leaving examinations. This incident made me realize how deeply children’s emotions steer their behaviour — like an invisible compass.
What made her react in this way?
Our emotions serve as inner signals or guides — when we feel joy, sadness, anger, or curiosity, these feelings emerge from underlying needs, values, or unresolved issues. Just as a compass helps orient us when we’re lost, connecting with emotions enables self-awareness and overall well-being. Hence the concept emotional compass is used as a metaphor that helps us navigate the ups and downs of life.
Why should the emotional compass get calibrated and not corrected?
Calibrating an emotional compass for a child’s well-being involves helping the child develop emotional awareness, regulation, and resilience.
Calibration refers to managing emotions, maintaining relationships, navigate the ups and downs of life with equipoise and confidence. Whilst correction is moralistic. Calibration respects individuality; correction enforces conformity It gets the child to obey the norms. It’s an effort to make the child’s emotions fit a pattern.
When a student struggles with behaviour use a language that focuses on the impact and the repair rather than judgment:
Shifting Focus: Instead of asking, “Why did you come late?” ask, “What made you come late? This shifts the focus from punishment to self-reflection and future planning (self-regulation).
How are emotions and neuroscience connected?
Research shows that emotions have a great influence on the formation of memories and their quality.
Neuroscience plays a pivotal role in elucidating the intricate relationship between emotions and behaviour. The limbic system, which includes key structures such as the amygdala and hippocampus, is central to emotional processing. Positive emotions such as joy and contentment are linked to increased activity in the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with higher cognitive functions like decision-making and impulse control. Conversely, negative emotions often activate the amygdala and other areas related to stress response.
The prefrontal cortex uses reasoning and sends the message to amygdala. Whereas amygdala works on as instinct with hippocampus. To illustrate, you see a speeding car and instinctively jump aside to save yourself. This signal to escape was given by the amygdala. It releases the Cortisol and adrenalin. The realization hits you later when the pre-frontal cortex gives you the reasoning. Memory is stored with Emotional tags – pleasant or distressing. If you have had a bad experience with someone, seeing them sometime later would trigger a spate of emotions. The behaviour and the facial expressions also reflect stress and trauma. In short, our brain’s emotional circuitry not only shapes our reactions but also our capacity to learn.
Emotional intelligence has profound implications for mental health and overall psychological well-being. Individuals with high levels of EI are generally better equipped to cope with stressors and challenges that life presents.
Human connection and Happiness
Human beings are social animals. With the advent of AI, this interaction between humans is getting lesser by the day. Gone are those days where we would be in a public transport talking to the co-travellers, at the clinic waiting your turn talking to the other patients and passing on old grandmother’s remedies. Today, the phone has overtaken all this. Both fingers move briskly, typing into the chat mode and with supersonic speed.
The 2021 World Happiness Report notes that greater connectedness correlates with higher life satisfaction and resilience. Human connection minimises health risks and improves physical well-being and longevity. However, strong social connections strengthen the immune system.
In classrooms too, emotional connectedness precedes cognitive engagement.
Loneliness is another factor that impinges on the mental health. Being alone is not loneliness. Can loneliness be dealt with? Yes. Seeking help is one of the bravest and most helpful steps one can take to overcome loneliness and the feelings that come with it.
Loneliness can make you feel unwanted and isolation can result from this. Volunteering is a meaningful way to connect with others, make friends, and feel a sense of purpose in your life. Giving back to those in need also amplifies your sense of gratitude and well-being. In a recent UK survey of more than 10,000 people, 2 out of 3 said volunteering helped them feel less isolated.
Surround yourself with people with shared interests. For instance, join a book club if you like books. Many senior citizen homes are mushrooming all over India. There are options to meet every pocket. It is a good outlet to meet people with similar interests.
People are more prone towards making connections with positive thinking individuals. Keep a smile on your face. Nurture that Human connection.
A teacher who serves as a compass reader in the classroom plays a pivotal role in guiding both the emotional and learning journeys of their students. The teacher helps them to navigate challenges, uncertainties, and shifts in their emotional states.
An effective emotional compass reader is highly self-aware and cultivates self-regulation. This role needs to be consciously cultivated. Some of these techniques are:
Mindfulness and Breathing Routines
Mindfulness can be integrated even in a 3 minute transition between classes.
Mindfulness practices, such as guided breathing exercises or short visualizations, help students become present, reduce anxiety, and self-regulate their emotional states. Guided meditation is another technique. Bhramari is a yogic exercise that reduces stress immediately.
Brahmari
Introduce box breathing. Inhale – hold – exhale – hold.
The calm down corner is a place where the student can go and sit down when he / she feels overwhelmed.
Additionally, serving as a compass reader not only guides students toward academic goals but also helps them develop resilience and self-understanding for life’s broader voyage.
Teacher self -regulation is of paramount importance.
Let me give an example where the teacher broke down and the student council members took charge. It is still so vivid in my memory. Our annual day rehearsal was going on at a hall which was rented for the purpose. The fire alarm went off. My Pre-primary children were on the stage. I announced that it was a fire drill and they should do what they have been taught. Fortunately, it was a false alarm. But we didn’t know about it till later. We had to evacuate. The teacher in charge started crying. But my student council members moved up to the stage and lifted the kids off the stage and placed them down to be moved out. The pre-primary babies quietly moved out led by their teachers. My heart swelled with pride. Students trained with fire drill could effectively cope with it. Mock Practice to deal with situations is essential.
Calm Down Circle and circle time
During the pandemic when there were cases of human loss, job loss, where children had to cope with uncertainties of life, emotional compass reading became essential. Each morning, the class gathered to form a circle and discuss strategies for calming themselves safely. Students shared their personal approaches, drew pictures, and wrote valued attributes about each other, creating an environment where acknowledging and managing emotions was normalized. This regular “emotional compass” session helped students identify their feelings, practice self-regulation, and experience a shared safe space. Circle time helps in open communication.
Peer Support and emotion management
Encourage peer support to deescalate anger issues. There is a beautiful anecdote where in the mother scolds the child for coming home late. The child says he stayed with a friend to help because his cycle had a break down. Mother asks him again “How did that help? You know nothing about repairing a bicycle”. The reply touches the heart. “I don’t know to repair. But he was crying so I sat with him”. Encourage them to reach out to one another.
Grief Journaling and Sharing
A teacher provided students with diaries to write or draw specific emotional experiences, particularly helpful for processing grief or sadness. In one instance, a student whose father had passed away used her diary to write messages to him, helping her to cope with loss. Sharing these reflections during classroom circles encourage openness, emotional expression, and community support.
Classroom Climate: Safe, Non-Judgmental Spaces
A safe classroom climate allows students to express themselves without fear of ridicule or exclusion. Teachers must become approachable.
Language of Emotion: Using Feeling Words and Reflective Questioning
Divide the class into two groups. First group – Each student has to say I feel frustrated when….. Give them more words to use “anxious,” “proud,” frustrated, angry, sad etc. Counter this by having the group saying I feel less frustrated when…. This would act as a reflective exercise.
Storytelling and Role Play: Emotional Rehearsal and Perspective Taking
Storytelling and role play allow students to explore feelings, rehearse appropriate emotional responses, and practice empathy by adopting different viewpoints.
Reflection Journals
Reflection journals let students privately record and process their emotions. This can bring in a lot of catharsis.
Aligning the Compass with SEL Frameworks: A NEP 2020 Focus
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 champions Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) as a cornerstone for the holistic development of students. This vision requires schools to align their educational compass with established SEL frameworks, fostering competencies like self-awareness, empathy, and responsible decision-making .
Integration with School Culture and Curriculum
This involves embedding SEL skills across all subjects and ensure that the school culture itself must become supportive, promoting positive adult-student and peer relationships.
The Ripple Effect on Peer Relationships and Academic Growth
The deliberate cultivation of SEL skills initiates a profound ripple effect. It helps in preparing students not just for exams, but for life.
The Teacher: Guide, Learner, and Compassionate Director
The modern teacher stands in a dual and dynamic role: as both a guide and a perpetual learner. As a guide, the teacher facilitates understanding, sparks curiosity, and models the very social and emotional skills they aim to impart. However, the effective teacher remains a lifelong learner.
Managing Emotions: Compassionate Direction, Not Control
When it comes to emotional management, the teacher’s role is one of compassionate direction, not rigid control. I believe Maslow should be practised before Bloom’s taxonomy.
Demonstrating Self-Reflection
Teachers should make the practice of self-reflection a regular, visible habit. Try using a personal reflection to drive a point home in class.
Teach Goal Setting and Planning Skills
Self-regulation applies not just to managing emotions but also to managing tasks and motivation. Teachers can model and scaffold these executive function skills:
- Chunking Tasks: Help students break large assignments into smaller, manageable steps. This reduces feelings of overwhelm and provides clear, achievable short-term goals.
- “If-Then” Planning: Teach students to anticipate challenges and plan their response. For example: “If I start feeling distracted during reading time, then I will quietly stand up and stretch for thirty seconds.” This pre-planning strengthens their ability to exert control over their impulses.
Strategies for Cultivating Empathy
Empathy moves beyond simply recognizing an emotion; it involves understanding why someone feels that way.
Let me use an example to differentiate between empathy, sympathy and apathy. A blind beggar was sitting on the pavement begging. People walked passed him without paying attention – Apathy.
People stopped to give him alms. – Sympathy.
A young girl stops by and changes his board which read I am blind. Help me to It’s a beautiful day and I cannot see it. – Empathy.
Let your students cultivate empathy.
Strategies for Developing Social Awareness
- Understanding Community and Diversity: Integrate discussions about diverse cultural practices, backgrounds, and experiences into the curriculum.
- Learn about the lives, food and festivals and social norms like waiting for your turn is a sign of respect.
Fostering Responsible Decision-Making
Responsible decision-making is the final, integrating core SEL competency.
Strategies for Teaching Ethical Decision-Making
Students need a clear, structured process to navigate complex choices, rather than relying purely on impulse.
Teacher should walk the talk. Manage mistakes with grace.
In 1987, I was a teacher in the middle school. In one of the classes, I discussed with the students, the implications of crossing the railway tracks. Those days in Mumbai, there were no foot over bridges. Everybody realised the hazards of crossing the tracks. One day, I crossed the tracks for some reason which I don’t recall now. As I reached the other side, some of my students spotted me and wished me. I felt like burying my head in the sand like an ostrich. Damage is done. How to undo this? Simple go back to class and apologise. Students were sweet enough to forgive me!
Case Studies and Moral Dilemmas: Facilitate discussions where students must justify their choices based on the potential impact on themselves and others.
Emphasizing Safety and Well-being
Responsible decisions prioritize long-term well-being and safety over immediate gratification.
- Analysing Risk vs. Reward: Use examples from health, social media, or academic choices to help students analyse the short-term rewards versus the long-term risks of various actions. For instance, discussing the risk of plagiarism versus the reward of earning a grade honestly.
- The Influence of Peers: Teach students assertiveness skills and strategies for respectfully saying ‘no’ or suggesting alternative, safer activities.
Emotional awareness is not just a skill — it is the moral compass that anchors every decision, personal or professional. The emotional compass, once attuned, empowers both teacher and learner to move through uncertainty with empathy, balance, and joy. Education, at its heart, is not just about what we know — but how we feel and connect.