The Case of Michael Wallace and Emotional Intelligence
MichaelWallace comes from a middle-class background, his mother is a teacher whereas his dad is a salesman. It was a normal childhood for Michael, until he moved to Richmond, Virginia — a black southern city. Wanted to fit in, Michael started dealing drugs and was arrested when he was 18. Long story short, Michael was a full-fledged convict when he was 21. He then decided to change his life: he got married, a stable job, until he made a decision to knowingly be involved in a drug deal. He lent his dealer friend $5,000 and he was promised full payment and having his wife’s credit fixed for free. It was a bust deal and he’s sentenced 30 years in prison with a daughter and a son on the way. Michael mentioned that he was only at the wrong place at the wrong time. Was it just unfortunate or is there a deeper issue underlying?
Let’s bring this to square one: Michael, as a child, trying to fit in at the new neighborhood where drugs can be obtained freely and a high crime rate. The story begins when he moved to the new, disadvantaged neighborhood. Will Michael’s life turned out for the better if he grew up in a better neighborhood instead? Given that there are many children like Michael that grew up in a disadvantaged neighborhood, which breeds negative influence and destructive attitude, does this mean these children’s fate are sealed?
Human psychology is affected from two factors: nature and nurture. Growing up in a community with criminal activities, discouraging role models, confusing social expectations and bad social environment is a burden for any child. A study by Sociologist Geoffrey Wodke and David Harding from University of Michigan found that growing up in a disadvantaged neighborhood reduces the chances a child will graduate from high school. It doesn’t stop there.
“The current findings demonstrate the importance of neighborhoods throughout childhood, and resonate with evidence from several other studies suggesting that residence in disadvantaged neighborhoods may have a negative effect on the cognitive development of children many years or even generations later ,”
Cognition is the thought processes and brain functioning activities and it develops since infancy. Cognitive and emotional development goes hand in hand as we learn how to regulate emotional reactions to different situation whilst growing up. Cognitive problem manifests itself in many ways, with the prominence of having emotional imbalance.
The emotional lessons that we learnt whilst growing up, at home, school and friends shapes our emotional circuits, making us adept or inept with emotional intelligence. This is the setting stone for the essential emotional habits that will govern our life.
According to Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence insist of a set of key characteristics: ability to motivate oneself, persist in face of frustation, control impulse and delay gratification, regulate one’s moods and keeping distress from halting the ability to think. People with lack of control over their emotional life fight inner battles that sabotages their ability to be focus, delay impulses and having a clear thought when faced with vicissitudes of life.
The inability to develop emotional intelligence will increase someone’s chances to risks such as depression, anger issue, violence, disorders and drug abuse. Now, being raised in such neighborhood will put these children into a big disadvantage in their early life. Not only that, research has shown that it could worsen the life chances of not only the child, but their children as well, an unfortunate patrimony. Of course there are ‘resilient’ children that regardless of their upbringing they make it in life. But what about the rest like Michael?
What needs to be done is by having an education system that focuses not only on logic and rational thinking, but also on teaching children their emotional and social skills. Many unfortunate cases like Michael could be avoided if we teach these children in making better decisions especially when faced with such social circumstances. This will not only help them to make better decisions in their childhood, but also throughout their adulthood. Emitai Etzioni wrapped this beautifully:
“Character education should imbue the full range of school experiences– the human curriculum as well as the academic curriculum. It should not be limited to classes on civics, nor is it only a matter of curriculum content.”
Imagine having a society where everyone are taught to handle anger, resolve conflict positively, and empathy. Imagine how many people have a chance for a better life. We live in a society that encourage selfishness, allows violence and live on quick gratification. People’s lack of control over impulses based their character and promotes crime. Especially with social media that easily promotes an obsessive and highly competitive society, we are becoming more lonely, depressed, angry and impulsive. As Daniel Goleman said, “If there is anything we desperately need in this society, is compassion and self awareness.”
