The Foulness of "Social Emotional Learning"

SEL: The putrid education matter that you have likely heard very little about

The Left is masterful at word manipulation. They have the skill, experience, and interest to massage the vocabulary to make a horrifically bad idea sound appealing. (Think “Green New Deal.”) However, the success of their deception depends on one other ingredient: the lack of Critical Thinking by the public.

A case in point is something going on in the education field called Social Emotional Learning (SEL). If you do an Internet search, 95% of what you’ll find is pablum saying what a wonderful idea SEL is, like here. It gushes:

“Social-emotional learning is the process of developing the self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for school, work, and life success.”

What’s not to like? The Left is saying: Just agree and then move on. Nothing to see here.

Critical thinkers will be wary of almost anything that is endorsed by our educational cabal (or the media), and will not blindly accept their description of such “programs.” Persistent parties (hopefully parents) will eventually find objective and accurate descriptions of what SEL is really all about. For example, this study says:

“Proponents of SEL call for focusing less on academic content and knowledge in schools, and more on student attributes, mindsets, values, and behaviors.”

Think carefully about that profoundly significant statement. This is a movement to DEVALUE academic content and knowledge… Does that sound like what our education system should be doing? Who benefits from US students being less educated? (One answer: those on the Left who are anti-American.)

To compensate for less knowledge, the SEL movement fills our children’s heads with attributes, mindsets, values, and behaviors. Does that sound like what our education system should be doing? Isn’t it the parents’ job to be teaching those things?

If Critical Thinkers forge further in their SEL Internet search (separating the wheat from the chaff with a machete), they will come across this marvelous Report, published by Moms for Liberty. Among many worthwhile observations, it says:

“The ultimate goal of SEL is to shift the values, beliefs, attitudes, and worldviews of students. The goal is to psychologically manipulate students to accept the progressive ideology that supports gender fluidity, sexual preference exploration, and systemic oppression.”

Getting the idea here? We have a secular (atheistic) organization instilling values into our children. Is that what should be happening in K-12 schools? Re-read the initial supportive quote above, and see how accurately and honestly it was describing SEL.

Another way to look at SEL is that it is a delivery vehicle for progressive ideology — e.g., DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), CRT (Critical Race Theory) and Woke. In this powerful talk, this PhD connects these with Communism.

Whether you are a parent, or a citizen without children in the school system, this is extraordinarily important. Literally, America’s future is in the balance. Get informed. Speak up. Contact your State Board of Education, as they have control of this.

PS — This is short, easy to read, and on target: SEL Primer.

PPS — I’ve now written four commentaries about SEL: 1) this one, 2) Should a Catholic School be Teaching SEL?, 3) Should US Public Schools be Teaching SEL? (as there are some significant differences from the Catholic school situation), plus 4) SEL and Critical Thinking.

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Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:

WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2023 Archives. Send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time - but why would you?

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