Parents' Rights Now!

Social Emotional Learning, PART 9: LABELS YOUR CHILD!

September 28, 2020 Suzanne Gallagher Season 1 Episode 34
Parents' Rights Now!
Social Emotional Learning, PART 9: LABELS YOUR CHILD!
Show Notes

This paper has highlighted the following problems with SEL: 

 1. No expert consensus on the definition of SEL; 

 2. Contradictory or poor-quality research underlying its efficacy; 

 3. Mixed or negative research about the supposed benefits with respect to academic achievement, reduced suicide, etc.; 

 4. Infusion of SEL into Common Core, resulting in psychologically manipulative standards rather than the promised clear, rigorous academic math and English standards; 

 5. Linking of SEL to violence and suicide prevention via mental-health screening, which can lead to improper diagnosis and over-treatment with potentially harmful medications; 

 6. Use of SEL and accompanying personality profiling in competency-based education/personalized learning to influence students’ post-secondary plans based on government- and business-determined needs, instead of the aspirations and desires of students and their families; 

 7. Erosion of student data privacy by collection of highly sensitive social-emotional information, in many cases without consent, and resulting in non-consensual exposure of such data to either authorized or unauthorized third parties; 

 8. Possibility of indoctrination and erosion of freedom of conscience via government-established SEL norms for the attitudes, values, and beliefs of freeborn American citizens. 

Recommendations 

First, cease expansion of SEL standards, programs, assessments, and data collection, via repeal of federal statutory language and taxpayer funding that encourage such activities (along with encouragement of states to do the same). Second, because no government, foundation, or corporate program can substitute for the love and nurture of families, SEL programs should be replaced with policies that encourage two-parent family formation. This would drastically reduce the tragically high rates of student behavior problems, gun use, delinquency, imprisonment, and poor academic performance among fatherless children... 

 Finally, because the government and its schools should exercise a degree of humility about what they can reasonably accomplish (not to mention whether their attempts at social engineering could actually exacerbate these problems by further usurping parental roles), schools should return to their roots: instilling traditional academic knowledge. Public schools can thus avoid teaching sterile aphorisms unmoored from any enduring moral or ethical foundations in an increasingly secular world brought about by delving into the vague term “values.” Teaching a student to accomplish something academically based on timeless books and disciplines will do wonders for his social-emotional welfare. 

"There are special people in education who are marvelous at renaming old programs that didn’t work...Growth Mindset is Self-Esteem 2.0. We learned from that theory the biggest holders of positive self-esteem were gang members. 

As someone who spent 19 of my 28 years in public education with “high risk” students, many of them gang wannabees...They actually discovered they could learn real math. That success was motivation to risk even more learning. THAT showed the foundation of emotional growth: doing honest, proficient work that transcends your circumstances and shows you’re not stupid or a dummy after all." Former teacher Niki Hayes 

Focusing on academics rather than on pop psychology would be a good first step toward cultivating genuine social-emotional health and all the benefits that flow from it. 

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