The Art of Emotions—How Art Builds Emotional Intelligence in Children
(A series exploring how engaging with and creating art fosters empathy, emotional regulation, and perspective-taking.)
I’ve long believed that one of the primary goals of education—perhaps the primary goal—is to raise well-rounded human beings. Kindness, to me, is a fundamental quality of a good person. And I’m not alone in this belief. According to a survey by Parents magazine, kindness is the most sought-after value parents wish to instill in their children—ranking even higher than intelligence or ambition.
This belief has shaped my teaching philosophy for years. I’ve always prioritized fostering socially skilled, emotionally intelligent, and well-rounded children over rote academic achievement. That’s why I advocate for STEAM education over STEM, valuing the arts not just as creative outlets but as crucial tools for developing soft skills—skills that lead to richer, more fulfilling lives and, as research suggests, greater long-term success.
For a time, it seemed that education and society were moving in this direction, emphasizing emotional intelligence, empathy, and holistic learning. But recent events have made it clear that we took these values for granted. Words like kindness and empathy have become politicized and charged. Being kind has somehow turned into a political stance.
Now, as a mother, I find myself worrying not just about the world my child will grow up in, but about the role they will play in shaping it. I want their future to be a positive one. If there is hope for a more compassionate world, I want their generation to be part of it. But we can’t assume kindness will simply emerge as a natural byproduct of a good education—it needs to be taught, modeled, and intentionally nurtured.
That’s why I’m starting this series. I want to take a more deliberate approach to exploring how we can foster kindness in children—through research, through education, and through art. This series is my attempt to bridge art education with social-emotional learning, making the case for why art matters—not just for creativity, but for humanity itself.
The idea for this project crystallized while reading the strikinly titled How to Raise Kids Who Aren’t Assholes by journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer, a book that resonated deeply with my own parenting journey. On the one hand, it reinforced some of my own beliefs, but it also made me realize that we need to be intentional about kindness. In a time when the liberal arts are being defunded and dismissed, I see this as both a defense of art education and a call to protect something far greater: the values that make us human.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the world, but I choose to believe in the next generation. And if kindness, empathy, and creativity are to survive the grinders of our time, then we must make an active effort to nurture them.
So let’s begin.
Stories That Help Raise Kind, Brave, Empathetic Kids
Download your free EQ Bookshelf — a printable guide with age-by-age book recommendations to support your child’s emotional growth through the power of stories.
What This Series Will Explore
In this series, we will be talking about the vital role of art in fostering emotional intelligence in children. We’ll explore why kindness, empathy, and emotional awareness—qualities often considered secondary in education—should actually be at the core of how we teach and raise children.
We’ll start by looking at why the arts belong in education and why STEAM, rather than STEM, is the better model for raising well-rounded individuals. We’ll discuss how the integration of the arts strengthens emotional intelligence, and why soft skills like self-awareness, communication, and empathy are just as critical as academic achievements for a successful and fulfilling life.
From there, we’ll explore how art helps children recognize emotions in themselves and others. What does it mean to “read” a painting the way we read a story? How can analyzing a character’s expression, posture, or even the color palette in an artwork help children develop deeper emotional literacy?
We’ll discuss how exposure to different visual narratives teaches kids to identify, understand, and respond to emotions—both in art and in real life.
We will also go beyond simple emotions like happy or sad and delve into how art teaches children to recognize complex feelings like nostalgia, longing, uncertainty, or even inner conflict. We’ll see how different artistic styles—from realism to abstract expressionism—can help children move beyond black-and-white emotional thinking and embrace emotional nuance.
Then, we’ll shift our focus to how art can be a tool for emotional expression. For many children, especially younger ones, it’s much easier to paint their feelings than to articulate them in words. We’ll talk about why creative expression is essential for emotional regulation, stress relief, and even healing, and we’ll explore simple, powerful activities that encourage children to use art as a way to process and express what they feel.
Finally, we’ll explore the connection between art and empathy. We’ll see how engaging with art—whether by creating it or interpreting it—helps children step into another person’s shoes. We’ll discuss why art and storytelling have historically been some of the most powerful tools for social change, and how we can use them today to help children cultivate a sense of compassion and responsibility toward others.
Through this series, I hope to bridge the gap between art education and social-emotional learning, making the case that fostering emotional intelligence should be just as intentional as teaching math or literacy.
If we want the next generation to be kind, empathetic, and socially conscious, we need to give them the tools to develop those skills—and art is one of the best ways to do that.
