After publishing this article explaining to Sarah Earle from Reaching Higher NH about the connection between Social and Emotional Learning and Critical Race Theory, I felt more needed to be explained.

Too many people become partisan on these important issues showing that they are willing to ignore or dismiss what is going on in public education. I explained in my email to Ms. Earle that her inference to conservative parents, and their concerns about CRT in SEL, were well founded. Instead of patronizing parents who have seen the transformation in SEL, we should be applauding them for questioning the direction SEL is taking in our schools.

CASEL creates the standards that measure all SEL programs. CASEL explains here how they are shifting focus away from academics because children have access to the Internet. That’s code for, we are going to dumb down your public school. Just look at how they sell this snake oil:

There’s no need to teach your kids math, science, history, etc.; they can now find information on the Internet. Can you imagine expecting this from your surgeon? Hopefully your surgeon doesn’t have to keep checking the internet when operating on you. This is a fast track to ILLITERACY.

But there’s more.

In “Transformative SEL,” “self-awareness” encompasses “identity,” with “identity” defined now through the lens of “intersectionality.” “Self-management” encompasses “agency,” with “agency” defined through “resistance” and “transformative/justice-oriented” citizenship. “Transformative SEL” also embraces “culturally relevant/responsive” pedagogy. 

SEL is now taking on the role of infusing Critical Race Theory into the classroom.

Here you can see that CASEL is moving forward with SEAD.

Is your state prioritizing SEAD?

“Is Your State Prioritizing SEAD?,” released in 2022 by The Education Trust and CASEL, reviews policies in all 50 states to highlight how states are supporting student needs by prioritizing social, educational, and academic development (SEAD) and where state policies threaten equity and diversity, including state efforts to limit the accurate teaching of history and current events.

 

Since when did CASEL decide that they should be reviewing New Hampshire education policies? Who gave them the authority to dictate what we do in the classroom? If you click on that link and go to New Hampshire, they appear to give us low grades. I guess we are not walking in lockstep with their social justice agenda at this time. Let’s hope that continues!

Transformative SEL is also known as Justice SEL. You can see that from CASEL’s VP of Research, Robert Jagers. He unveiled this to educators at their 2019 conference. Their new definition of social-emotional learning is called: Transformative SEL. CASEL, which is the organization that sets the standards by which all social-emotional programs are measured, explains how their new form of “justice”/Transformative SEL is most essential to issues of equity (which, according to their definition, means distributive justice).

CASEL also invited Dena Simmons to talk about how SEL can be leveraged to create “the social change we need” by teaching children to be “anti-racist.” Anti-racism is not about not being a racist, it’s a way to dismantle the system that they believe to be systemically racist. This is Critical Race Theory, which is a form of racism.

CASEL, which creates the standards that measure all SEL programs, began this transformation back in 2019. They want to leverage SEL to create children who are anti-racist social justice warriors.  But anti-racism IS Critical Race Theory.

In a 2020 webinar, CASEL leaders discussed how they changed their framework and 5-Core competencies (that all SEL programs are measured against & rated by) to reflect their new Transformative SEL definition:

Nowhere did New Hampshire school boards or elected legislators approve of any of this. So what’s up next? Gender Ideology?!

They are implementing this system-side even though “there are currently limited options for evidence-based programs and implementation models for Transformative SEL.”

In 2020, they updated their evaluation criteria to better reflect their updated definitions of SEL (Transformative).

More directly from CASEL on Transformative SEL (Critical Race Theory SEL)

How has this impacted children in the classroom? From the Washington Examiner:

‘Transformational SEL’ is traumatizing students

As of this winter, 36 states had passed legislation aimed at keeping critical race theory and other “divisive concepts,” sometimes referred to in law as “prohibited concepts,” out of K-12 public school classrooms. Despite these efforts, these very concepts are still being taught under the guise of addressing mental health and well-being. And I fear it is creating mental health problems in children, through the introduction of such caustic ideas at inappropriate ages.

Since 2000, there has been a 350% increase in the suicide rate of children between 10 and 12 years old. What could be driving this explosion? Part of it could be that pre-adolescent children are being exposed to ideas about adult subjects through books, articles, and learning materials produced by social justice warriors steeped in critical race theory, critical gender theory, and critical feminism. Another might be the promotion of specific books and articles being introduced as part of the same programs, which feed suicide ideation.

The self-appointed mental health provider, CASEL, who is the gatekeeper to all SEL programs, may be doing your children more harm than if they left them alone. And Reaching Higher NH is wondering why parents are questioning this transformation in their child’s classroom!!

When your school uses SEL competencies to collect mental health data  on your children, remember what kind of mental health data they will now be collecting. They will be grading your child’s attitudes on race and gender through SEL competencies. Competency-Based Education does NOT permit a child to move forward UNLESS they pass their competencies. Your child MUST adhere to CASEL’s viewpoints, or your child does not advance.

Lisa Logan documents much of this here in the Second Step SEL Program:

As such, the new goal of SEL programs that align to CASEL’s standards is to groom students into thinking that the systems of society are intentionally built to be oppressive toward certain groups of people, and that they need to become agents of change (social justice activists) who want to overthrow those systems to make them more “equitable.”

SEL lessons, like those found in the program Second Step, manipulate the definitions of empathy and perspective-taking in their K-5 program to frame that being kind means you have to “do something,” which later becomes “choose a disruption strategy” by 8th grade. These disruption strategies encourage students to come up with concrete plans to advocate for causes related to race, gender and sexuality. Being that the assessments (like the surveys/screeners conducted by Panorama Education) also align to CASEL’s standards, they are measuring compliance to & students’ adoption of these Marxist values, attitudes, and beliefs, which will be scored and collected as data that reflects their “emotional intelligence.”

This isn’t about educating your children so that they can become doctors, lawyers, plumbers or electricians, this is about creating social justice warriors for the radical beliefs.  The best thing to do is to OPT OUT of ALL SEL in your school district. That may be difficult since SEL is now embedded in some of the curriculum. You must let school administrators know that your child is NEVER to be assessed on any SEL Competencies and keep an eye on it.

NOTE: Credit to Lisa Logon and Michele Kee