Everyone Is Talking About Social Emotional Learning

By Amy Krahe

The American education system has been under a microscope more today than ever before. And what has been discovered is that education has moved away from reading, writing and arithmetic and has been replaced with a focus on mental health, restorative justice, and social, emotional learning. The fast pace at which our education system is being transformed is making it hard for parents to keep up with new educational practices and the terminology that defines it.

In an effort to help parents understand the new and ever changing practices within your child’s classroom this article is going to attempt to give some practical insight into just one topic: Social, Emotional Learning (SEL). Social Emotional Learning has been around for a while but it like many other areas of education have been transformed and expanded.

Historically SEL was used as an intervention tool with troubled learners, those with a bad homelife, who struggled with material needs, or struggled socially. They would work with these students in a small group or one on one setting. While CASEL states that they introduced SEL two decades ago, our school counselors say that it has been around as long as six decades and some experts in the field now state that its roots go as far back as Plato and Aristotle. It began as an experiment in inner city schools on minority students. Later it was co-opted by CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning).

“We define social and emotional learning as an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships and make responsible and caring decisions.” - CASEL

Under their Mission and Framework, CASEL states that it “has been a leader of the SEL movement since first introducing the term more than two decades ago.” The 5 pillars of CASEL are Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Building and Responsible Decision Making. Unfortunately, even in the plethora of words they offer up, we still do not have a clear understanding of SEL. More importantly, answer the question: “Will it help my child?”

CASEL began at the Fetzer Institute over two decades ago. The Fetzer Institute was founded by John Fetzer as a religious and spiritual development non-profit institute. The institute’s mission was “to help build the spiritual foundation for a loving world”. In the public education system terms like “Whole Child” or “Whole Learner” reflect the goal to educate the mind, body and spirit. In today’s elementary school one can now find many pieces of New Age Practice including: Calm Corner, Meditation and Mindfulness, Breathing Exercises and Therapeutic Practices.

Currently, there is no real data that supports that it has any impact academically or otherwise to benefit your child. Early on “successes” were highly dependent on the enthusiasm of both the student and the teacher during these small group or one on one SEL sessions. Most studies that tout the benefits of the CASEL Framework are published by CASEL themselves.

The overarching mindset in SEL is that to reach the student’s highest potential academically we need to reach them first emotionally. “You can’t add when you’re mad”, is a mantra used by school counselors. Instead of telling a child to focus on the task at hand, the teacher would have the child or entire class stop the work they are doing and focus solely on their emotions. Work through those feelings and emotions, perhaps utilize the “chill corner” to destress and then hopefully they can return to their work. Time being enormously focused on emotion at the expense of learning. This begs the question. Don’t we want our children to “add when they are mad?” Even if they are stressed, or under pressure, they should be able to still perform and not simply stop everything and focus on their feelings. Resiliency used to be the buzz word of the public school system, to encourage students to work hard and bounce back even when things are tough. The old adage that working hard and performing well builds confidence is being turned on its head and now the focus is being put first on your child’s emotional state and hoping that that will in turn affect their academic performance. Are we at risk of creating the next generation of adults that will not be able to get through stress in a day?

What does SEL look like in the classroom? In the school system, SEL can be implemented in two different ways: Integrated or Explicit. Integrated refers to SEL being pushed through every subject in their day. Typically teachers are also required to record how they used SEL in that subject as well as scoring students on one of the five pillars. Explicit SEL occurs when a guidance counselor or designated teacher will have a set lesson plan in the schedule to specifically teach one of the five pillars.

Integrated SEL is the Trojan Horse to CRT, DEI and Gender Ideology. Lessons are co opted to push through an ideology within the lesson materials. Parents have reported numerous English lessons where students are given sentences that provoke political ideologies on the students and math word problems induce critical consciousness so instead of learning the math concepts, they will engage with social justice issues.

Surveys are used in two important ways. 1) to assess the students’ understanding of skills and 2) to push incremental “right thing”. SEL survey software gives teachers opportunities to score students on the five pillars of CASEL but also for students to begin sharing their mental health with the district. When asking districts and teachers what is done with these surveys, no one seems to know. One such survey system, Satchel Pulse, has the ability for teachers to show the scoring of a student’s academic grades and then also their latest SEL score. Some opponents of SEL and universal screeners have asked if this is the latest way to acquire a social credit score on the next generation that will be used to get jobs or apply for college. Questions such as “Do you celebrate all lifestyles?” will assess your child’s ability to acceptance even if they fly in opposition to the family’s standards and beliefs.

What can parents who oppose SEL do?

Parents: Opt-Out and Speak Out. Currently SEL is not a requirement by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, therefore opting your child out and requesting academics that lead toward your student’s graduation requirements in its place is a great option. Also, share with other parents what SEL is and speak out at board meetings. Get your board directors informed and aware of the consequences of their policies in your child’s day to day education.

School Directions: It is necessary for all board directors to be educated on what they are voting through for the children in their community. Understanding the language and consequences of what is being implemented is vital to knowledgable voting. Moving SEL into a corner of Guidance Curriculum and pushing for explicit opt-in over Opt-out policies is crucial for gatekeeping the district.

State Legislators: At the state level we need our lawmakers to ensure that the state is requiring and defining public education as academic and that the taxpayers in our state are not funding mental health for students. Mental health, especially for our youth, is too important to be handed over to the public school system and should stay with health field experts.

Additional Resources:

Courage is a Habit: www.courageisahabit.org
James Lindsay at New Discourses: www.newdiscourses.org
Take Back the Classroom: www.takebacktheclassroom.org
Rated Books: www.ratedbooks.org
Parents on the Level: www.parentsonthelevel.com