Swimming Against the Tide: Choosing EI Over AI for Our Children

In the world of AI, I decided to swim against the tide to work on EI. Even in the name ‘Artificial Intelligence’, no matter how cool it sounds, the first word is ‘artificial’.

It’s called artificial because it’s trained to mimic human intelligence. But what makes us truly human is our empathy, our emotional depth, our ability to connect, and our rationality that no machine can completely replicate.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional Intelligence, as described by Emotional Intelligence (EQ): Components and Examples, is the ability to understand, process and manage one’s emotions and relationships. It involves being aware of one’s surroundings, people and emotions and being able to navigate through life’s challenges with rational thinking and behaviour. People who are emotionally intelligent can rationalise situations better, process social cues and are more adept at handling relationships.

In fact, Emotional Intelligence is equally important for success. While Intelligence Quotient (IQ) can help our children crack through entrance exams, it is the Emotional Quotient (EQ) that will help them manage exam and academic stress and pressure effectively.

Why is EQ important in our lives

We often tend to overlook EQ as it is perceived as someone being ‘weak’ or ‘too soft’. While we focus on outcomes that can be quantified – such as marks, GPA Scores, percentiles, profits – we often ignore the importance of EQ in a student’s or a professional’s life for handling academic or peer pressure or a toxic workplace.

We all love success, winning and scoring well, but how do we handle it? That is crucial. No one likes failure, but it is a part of our lives, and how we handle it speaks volumes about our EQ.

During my corporate years, I have seen extremely successful people unable to handle client or manager criticism and feedback, which made the entire workplace toxic. Does this trait happen overnight? Not really, sometimes it begins as early as in one’s childhood. One person like this in a team would invariably bring down the morale of the entire team.

We’ve seen that when children are consistently told they’re ‘good’ or ‘the best’, they are unable to handle situations where they’re met with competition or failure. That’s why it is important that we talk about difficult feelings such as failure or disappointments as such life skills need to be taught since their childhood.

Incorporating EQ in our lives

I am sure schools are doing their best to inculcate these, and I have noticed that dedicated efforts bring about a positive change in children. We may not see the results now, but it surely happens over time as the learning sinks in gradually.

The immense mental satisfaction I get from mentoring the children beyond reading and writing is thinking outside the box, learning to be accountable and responsible, emotional regulation, empathy, and caring.

In this age of ‘artificial’ intelligence, I’m braving against the tide to focus on ‘emotional’ intelligence by building children’s emotional resilience through my W.I.N.G.S Program at The Write Compass.

What is Empathy?

While Emotional Intelligence helps the individual regulate their emotions, Empathy is the ability to feel what someone else is feeling or going through, and to be supportive and encouraging rather than merely sympathetic. Empathy shows you care, you’re concerned about the other person, and you check in on them.

How we teach empathy in our W.I.N.G.S Program

During our sessions, the children do role plays. For one of our activities, we talked about Shelly the Turtle, Lucky the Octopus and Sunny the Lion who helped the children deal with difficult feelings, such as disappointment and not doing well at a sporting event.

The children also did an interactive activity: they asked each other a few questions and wrote down what makes them happy and sad. We encourage the children to do the same with their parents once they’re home.

Teaching them difficult emotions

So, at the W.I.N.G.S Program, we’re helping children understand concepts such as kindness, responsibility, and accountability. During one of our mentorship sessions, the children asked me, “Ma’am, what does ‘regret’ mean?” They read the word while solving a feeling word puzzle. Well, how do you explain this to children from grades 2-5? I explained, “When your mumma says not to have too many chocolates and you do, and you get a painful cavity and have to visit the dentist. And when at the dentist’s chair while she/ he is fixing your painful tooth, you feel ‘regret’, that I wish I had listened to my mumma and I wouldn’t have landed here.” It was a lightbulb moment for my students.

Teaching children empathy with their parents

We make the children do such empathy and feelings-check exercises at home, where they ask their parents similar questions like this. We believe that parenting should not be a one-way street. Parents are humans too, and we’re trying to inculcate empathy in our mentees to check in on their parents too, by asking questions such as: How was your day? or Is there any way I can help you today?

Learning beyond marks and syllabus – Learning for Life

Not all learning and teaching has to be theory-based, with tons of writing and reading. It is the application of what we learn that counts. We’re seldom taught under what circumstances we can use what we learn, and through The Write Compass W.I.N.G.S Program for children, we’re mentoring them to be empathetic individuals who can handle their emotions and be considerate of others’ emotions as well.

It is said, “Charity begins at home”, but we like to reframe it to “Empowerment begins from home” as no one needs charity; we need to be kind and empowering of one another.

Before expecting the children to be kind to the outside world, we mentor them to be kind to themselves and their parents.

Such things cannot be taught in a day, but over a consistent period of time through simple activities such as role-play, art, craft, and self-exploration worksheets and activities. We also encourage the children to work with their parents on such activities, as we want the children to learn to be empathetic towards their parents, who work so hard to give them a good life.

Through The Write Compass Writing Mentorship Programs, we aim to mentor and guide students and professionals through personal reflections, writing and introspective conversations.

If your child is in Grade 8 or above and needs gentle, consistent support with academic writing and self‑belief, reach out. Our 6‑Month Writing Mentorship Program equips them with the tools to meet academic demands with clarity, resilience, and confidence.

References:

Emotional Intelligence vs. Empathy – What’s the Difference? | This vs. That

Emotional Intelligence (EQ): Components and Examples