Emotion is often portrayed as a threat to rational thought. Daniel Vanello argues the opposite: that emotions are themselves rational, shaped by our values and open to justification or criticism. If this is right, emotional development should not focus on control and management, but on learning how to reason with what we feel.

Emotional development is central to a person’s wellbeing. Just think how important it is that we make and sustain attachments with others, both within the family and in society through friendships and romantic relationships. It would not be possible to do so without a balanced relationship with one’s emotions. Think of the person who is always too jealous and cannot preserve a romantic relationship. Or the person who is always angry at their parents and does not allow themselves to enjoy parental love.

It is not surprise then that emotional development is part of the United Nations’ 4^th Sustainable Development Goal, a list of aims needed to better human life on this planet. It is also part of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) early childhood development goal, which aims to give every child the opportunity to reach their full potential and flourish. Empirical evidence supports these commitments. Healthy emotional development is reliably correlated to future academic success, prosocial behaviour and building friendships. It is not a coincidence, then, that, more locally, the British government included emotional development as a key learning goal in its early years national curriculum and that its Department for Education (DfE) included it in its annual priority areas of research interest.

And yet, there is a persistent and fundamental problem with how children’s emotional development is understood in educational policy. It is seen merely as an instrument to facilitate children’s ability to focus and complete tasks given to them by the educational system. The problem is not that the educational system wants children to learn how to complete tasks and manage their emotions in doing so. This is undoubtedly important. Rather, the problem is that this picture of emotional development leaves out its most important aspect: rational agency. Emotions are more than psychological states to be managed; they are shaped by what we value and can be assessed as rational or irrational depending on whether the things that provoke them are rational or not.

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The picture we get of emotional development is one where emotions need to be managed in order for children to carry out their task-solving functions appropriately.This picture ignores the most powerful aspect of emotions: they are rational.

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Understanding emotional development as underpinned by this rational capacity transforms how we should approach it in education. Right now, though, we overlook it. A paradigmatic example of this is the early years curriculum in Britain. Early years teachers are asked to ensure that children can demonstrate appropriate skills in three areas: self-regulation, managing self, and building relationships. The curriculum focuses on two psychological constructs to identify the appropriate skills for sustaining these three areas: emotional competence and executive functions.