Emotional ’literacy’ implies an expanded responsibility for schools in helping to socialize children. This daunting task requires two major changes: that teachers go beyond their traditional mission and that people in the community become more involved with schools as both active participants in children’s learning and as individual mentors.

Goleman is arguing that teaching “emotional literacy” (skills like recognizing feelings, regulating impulses, empathizing, and resolving conflict) cannot be treated as an optional add-on. If schools accept responsibility for students’ social and emotional development, then the institution’s role expands from transmitting academic knowledge to actively shaping the social competencies that undergird learning and citizenship. He identifies two structural implications: teachers must broaden their remit beyond subject instruction to include social-emotional coaching, and the wider community must share the work through sustained involvement—especially mentoring relationships that model emotional skills in real life.