I recently spoke at the Family Research Council about a new fad in mass public schooling called “social and emotional learning” (SEL.) Those who advocate for SEL claim the program will give children critical life skills, such as empathy, getting along with others, and making good decisions. An organization called the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) wants a government mandate that will bring this program into every school. You can watch my FRC policy lecture here:
In this talk I give my perspective on SEL. While good teachers are always a godsend, bureaucrats can never achieve what they promise in such programs. Especially since their framework is mass schooling. Such values and attitudes need to be taught in intimate settings of trust, such as families. Not in hyper-bureaucratized mega-schools. I see the SEL program as a bait-and-switch operation, because it demands universal compliance with its methods, with its content, and with its monopoly. By its very monolithic nature as program driven by a government monopoly, it is coercive. In the video, you’ll see a clip in which a representative for SEL tells us that they “need the WHOLE child.” And if you delve into this more, you can see that the SEL program is really all about enforcing conformity: Conformity of feelings, attitudes, emotions, speech, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior. When such things are directed by a centralized State mandate, rather than by de-centralized mediating institutions — institutions of family, faith, and voluntary associations — there can be no freedom, nor can there be real diversity.
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