What is SEL or Social Emotional Learning?

Happening in a school near you!

From an April 2021 article written by the CEO of the collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning or CASEL:  Look for the buzzwords:

“Understanding and applying SEL competencies helps build equitable learning environments where all students can thrive by creating an education system that values and uplifts every student. This can be done by appreciating each student’s unique strengths and needs, acknowledging their personal identities, and incorporating students’ personal experiences and cultural backgrounds into instruction to create an inclusive learning environment where students feel their own agency is valued.

It also includes developing self-awareness and self-management to discuss personal and group strengths and biases; social awareness and relationship-building skills to foster cross-cultural relationships; and responsible decision-making skills to reflect on and address the impacts of racism and other forms of inequitable treatment. Throughout all of these actions, SEL promotes environments where students and adults alike can engage deeply in learning, bring their full selves and feel a sense of belonging.

No matter your role in a child’s life, you can help build a more holistic education system by working to expand SEL support and implementation across all aspects of education.”

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What is a “holistic education system”?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holistic_education

1.       Religious; as in becoming "enlightened". You see the light out of difficulties and challenges. This can be done through increased spirituality. Spirituality is an important component in holistic education as it emphasizes the connectedness of all living things and stresses the "harmony between the inner life and outer life".^[22]

2.       Psychological; as in Maslow's "self-actualization". Holistic education believes that each person should strive to be all that they can be in life. There are no deficits in learners, just differences.

3.       Undefined; as in a person developing to the ultimate extent a human could reach and, thus, moving towards the highest aspirations of the human spirit.^[22]

In holistic education the basic three R's have been said to be education for: Relationships, Responsibility and Reverence for all life.

·         First, children need to learn about themselves. This involves learning self-respect and self-esteem. Second, children need to learn about relationships. In learning about their relationships with others, there is a focus on social "literacy" (learning to see social influence) and emotional "literacy" (one's own self in relation to others). Third, children need to learn about resilience. This entails overcoming difficulties, facing challenges and learning how to ensure long-term success. Fourth, children need to learn about aesthetics – This encourages the student to see the beauty of what is around them and learn to have awe in life.^[25]

·         Curriculum is derived from the teacher listening to each child and helping the child bring out what lies within oneself.

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CASEL claims that injecting its SEL agenda into all pre-k and K12 curricula will cultivate in children the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors necessary for academic achievement, such as empathy and regulation of emotions.

But veiled under the CASEL claim of building kids' self-confidence is a statist agenda of social engineering that insists on total conformity of thought. It disregards the genuine individuality of students and their familial relationships.

CASEL requires total compliance with its methods, with its content, and with its monopoly on how children are taught. It requires the monitoring and tracking of students' emotions. So, in the end, the SEL agenda enforces conformity, it invades privacy, and it undermines the influence of family and faith in a child's life. Instead of promoting strong relationships, as SEL proponents claim, the SEL agenda serves more to isolate children through a program of peer-modelled behavior modification that manipulates the human fear of being socially rejected. This sort of psychological manipulation is more aptly described as social emotional programming.