It is a public school teacher’s greatest challenge and sometimes worst nightmare — getting the disruptive, mouthy or troubled kid who never turns in a homework assignment to quiet down, focus and learn something. Heart-warming movies have been made out of those “aha” moments, but the reality is that most teachers end up sending the troublemaker to a principal or counselor.

What solution does a counselor or other authority figure come up with? Detention? Suspension? The good news is that someone has come up with a solution — a way to reach these at-risk students — and keep them on a one-way street to achieving their goals. His name is Christian Moore and he gave a presentation on his “Why Try” curriculum last week.

It is a series of concepts illustrated in drawings that serve as metaphors. It’s a visual method and sometimes the most effective way of helping a student.

Moore had his own challenges growing up as a street kid in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. His parents suffered from mental illnesses and Moore struggled with a learning disability. He would have gotten lost in the shuffle between five brothers and six sisters, had it not been for Mama Jackson, his neighbor, dragging him out of bed every morning and insisting he go to school. Mama Jackson gave Moore a reason why he should try.

Why Try is for the student who can’t concentrate on algebra or chemistry homework because Dad is an abusive drunk or Mom is in rehab. Why Try is for the kid who doesn’t fit in and is the object of peer ridicule. Why Try is the school’s effort to be the support system for those students who have no one and nothing else. It teaches important life skills, such as anger management, problem solving, how to deal with peer pressure, living with laws and rules, building a support system and having a vision of the future.

It sounds like something everyone could use. Aren’t we all at risk of falling through the cracks? Aren’t we all vulnerable living in a “look out for number one” society?

My guess is that in a school setting, even students who come from the most affluent homes would benefit from Why Try. In the real world, these life skills are crucial to obtaining and keeping any job, developing and maintaining healthy relationships of all types and raising families.

This program is attracting educators, counselors and therapists like moths to a flame. Moore began introducing Why Try to educators and counselors in Utah after earning his MSW from Brigham Young University.

Dawn Kay, a specialist in secondary comprehensive guidance from the Utah State Office of Education, reports that more than 700 school counselors and school administrators attend this training every year. Moore’s presentations are “standing room only.” It is now mandated in all schools in Utah and Nevada.

Why Try curriculum is an example of social and emotional education that Moore developed in response to his own need. He defined social and emotional education as understanding your behavior and the behavior of others. That understanding accounts for 80 percent of success in the classroom and in life.

Six Seconds, a California-based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving relationships by teaching EQ (emotional intelligence), has posted a century of research on social and emotional intelligence on its Web site, www.6seconds.org. Experts there define it as “the inner capacities that let us create optimal relationships with ourselves and others. The skills include using thoughts, feelings and actions to build self-knowledge, self-management and self-direction.”

“Emotional intelligence grows from the study of ourselves and our relationships — thus referred to as Self-Science — is a comprehensive, developmental and research-based curricula for creating schoolwide culture of emotional intelligence. Rather than telling children what not to do, Self-Science provides multiple options of what to do. It helps children become more aware of themselves and make more conscious decisions about the ways they think, feel and act independently and interdependently,” states the Web site.

How would this program affect inmates? Welfare recipients? People in the ministry and social workers should become trained, licensed users of this curriculum.

Rather than telling adults what to do or what not to do, Self-Science would provide multiple options. It could help adults become more aware of the ways they think, feel and act.

The principles of “emotional intelligence” aren’t new. In fact, maybe we’re just putting a new label on an age-old truth.

But what’s exciting is that new research is finally proving what ancient philosophers knew. Plato wrote, “All learning has an emotional base.”

Leslie Heuer is a graduate student in English from Des Moines.