As a retired teacher I absolutely love this discussion and it gets at the heart of what's wrong with education today
Why are feel-good concepts like Emotional Intelligence so popular among teacher types? The answer is because they are no good at math and science. The typical teacher has great people skills, but is completely dumbfounded by math and science. That's why STEM initiatives typically go nowhere. The Maker Space mentioned in the first post of this thread will predictably degenerate into a glorified arts and crafts room. Although Maker Spaces are supposed to support STEM initiatives, without the personnel to push things in that direction the tendency is to regress to the status quo. Like I said, the typical teacher has almost no aptitude for math and science and so there is no one to actually turn STEM-related ideas into something that actually happens in reality.
Programs focusing on something that can loosely be called Emotional Intelligence make teachers feel comfortable. They understand that sort of thing and can put those kinds of ideas into practice. This perpetuates the FAILURE of schools to adequately address issues relating to math and science. BUT the important thing is it allows teachers to feel that they're doing something that THEY find meaningful. They easily convince themselves that programs focusing on expressing emotion and sharing feelings are good for students and that's the end of the story. It's not that teachers are selfish and focused on themselves so much as they simply lack the ability to do what they are incapable of doing.
And that basically sums up the story of public education in the USA.