People with high emotional intelligence (EQ) communicate better, work well with others, become committed leaders and friends. EQ has a stronger correlation with learning achievements and future success than IQ.

At Budapest School, we have always focused on our children's emotional learning, but we want to do it better and more consistently. We wanted it to become part of the curriculum. After some research, we concluded there is no need to create our own EQ program. Juli Kéri and Viki Takács, the BPS curriculum developers discovered a solution at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. This approach is called RULER. They agreed to bring this internationally successful program to BPS, and adapt it to our education system.

RULER Training at BPS

RULER was developed by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence at Yale University . Created in 2005 by Marc Brackett, Ph.D. (a Yale professor, researcher, and author of the book: Permission to Feel), this approach to social and emotional learning supports emotional intelligence development in schools. It is one of the most researched and recognized social and emotional learning (SEL) programs.

Juli Kéri has been following the RULER approach for 15 years. Her goal was to incorporate learning about emotions as a daily routine for children at schools. Topics like anger management, self-expression, or conflict resolution should be as common as math or history.

Today, EQ development is present in all of the BPS school communities in some form. We want to take a step further, and incorporate it more systematically. Our goal is to make EQ knowledge visible and measurable so that every BPS child, regardless of age or school community membership, learns about emotions, their own functioning, relationships, and how to manage feelings.

Implementation at BPS

Four BPS teachers from kindergarten to high school have already completed the RULER Institute training, as the first phase of the integration process. They learned the basics of the RULER approach and now can access RULER’s international community and knowledge base. In the next school year this team will facilitate the adaptation of the RULER practices into the daily life of our communities, so that teachers and staff members gradually acquire these routines and become role models for the students.

RULER for Parents

Our plans for the next year includes EQ workshops for both teachers and parents. The RULER Institute and we agree that this system will work best if parents, children, and teachers have a common language and tools for recognizing, expressing, and managing emotions. What are these tools? Let us show you one (Juli's favorite): the Mood Meter. Why does she like it? It's simple, easy to learn, and very informative. It helps you identify how you feel and understand how others feel. It helps us tune in to each other and communicate better.