EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE EMPATHETIC EDUCATOR

Instilling emotional intelligence among students is the need of the hour and it is only a concerned and understanding educator who can make future citizens emotionally competent. Communication apprehension, which is noticed in many students in a class room, is due to low emotional intelligence. The helplessness experienced by the student makes him/ her a pessimist, always anticipating the worst. Many a time, lack of concentration, poor memory, confusion and doubt in thought and speech that are noticed by a teacher in some of her students are all due to this anxiety. In course of time such students have low self-esteem andlow level of personal and social competence; making him/ her failure in this competitive world. An empathetic and understandingfacilitator can wield her magic wand and play a significant role in alleviating this apprehension and building the learners’ emotional quotient; thus enabling him to face future challenges and emerge victorious. This can be done with an understanding that most of the social problems that are experienced by these individuals stem from how they are perceived by others and how others respond to them. A concerned facilitator should watch for all the symptoms, analyze the situation and the learners thoroughly; and then think of ways to improve the learners’ EQ. He/ she should also provide the extrinsic motivation required for positive learning to take place; be a doctor than a judge and offer medication than pass a judgment.