Scarlett Lewis, a Newtown mother who lost her son in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, will present the lecture, “Why Social and Emotional Learning Matters: Teaching Kids to Choose Love,” from 7-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 17, in the auditorium of the Center for Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences on Quinnipiac University’s North Haven Campus, 370 Bassett Road.
“We train our teachers at Quinnipiac that the social curriculum is equal to the academic curriculum,” said Anne Dichele, professor of education and director of the master of arts in teaching program at Quinnipiac. “You teach it the same way you would teach mathematics or reading or any other academic subject area. This lecture really supports the kind of teacher training we do here at the School of Education. The social curriculum is infused in what we do.”
Lewis lost her son, Jesse, to the unspeakable tragedy at Sandy Hook on Dec. 14, 2012, in which a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six adults.
“I would like to show the students of Quinnipiac University they have the courage within them to choose love in any situation,” Lewis said. “I would like to plant the seed that there is opportunity for endless growth as a result of trauma and the empowering force of forgiveness.”
The lecture, sponsored by Quinnipiac’s School of Education, is free and open to the public.
“Sandy Hook has had a huge impact on educators,” Dichele said. “The response of a mom to say, “Choose love,” even when she lost her child, says something incredible about changing the paradigm.”
Since the tragedy, Lewis has started the “Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation,” which collaborates with professional educators by developing school-based educational programs to change our current culture of violence to one of safety, peace and love. She is also working with legislators to promote awareness of and funding for compassion training as a means of promoting nonviolence.
For more information, call 203-582-8652.