“Social and Emotional Learning.” It sounds so innocuous, so appropriate and positive. School officials and policy makers are asking: How could any parent oppose the development of social and emotional skills? But parents are growing more and more alarmed – and for very good reasons.
Social Emotional Learning, often referred to as SEL, has changed over time. Originally, the goal of SEL was to promote morally neutral soft-skills such as self-awareness, self-management, empathy, and goal setting.
In 2020, everything changed with the shift to “Transformative SEL.”
Resources
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) 101
“Social and Emotional Learning.” It sounds so innocuous, so appropriate and positive. School officials and policy makers are asking: How could any parent oppose the development of social and emotional…
Resources
Social Emotional Learning Livestream
PDE is joined by SEL Expert Jennifer McWilliams for a conversation around Social Emotional Learning: What is it? Why do you need to know about it? What does “SEL” look…
Resources
Curriculum Alternatives
Click to find new alternatives to Social Studies, History, Diversity, and SEL…
Resources
Opting Out
What does it mean to opt out? Do parents have a right to opt children out of aspects of school? What is the process to opt out? What are my…
Resources
Incidents
Liberty Tech Charter School plans to adopt new SEL curriculum; prohibits parents from opting students out
A concerned community member reached out to Parents Defending Education about Liberty Tech Charter School implementing Social Emotional Learning (SEL) into the school curriculum. This person explained to PDE…
Incidents
Lee’s Summit R-7 School District agrees to $510,000 contract with Panorama; pays $97,000 to provide teachers and district staff with “racial equity training”
A concerned community member provided Parents Defending Education with contracts between Lee’s Summit R-7 School District and Panorama Education Inc. In a contract dated December 1, 2019, the school district…
Incidents
Missoula County Public Schools trains teachers in “interrupting oppression”; shifts to “gender identity” for participation in school programs, activities
Missoula County Public Schools has a policy titled “Equal Education, Nondiscrimination and Sex Equity.” The policy states: “Equal educational opportunities shall be available for all students…
Incidents
West Chester Area School District trains teachers in “talking to children about gender”; board votes to keep sexually explicit graphic novel, ‘Gender Queer,’ in school libraries
The West Chester Area School District promotes perceived accomplishments at achieving equity on its website under a page titled “Equity Mission.” This page provides numerous resources…
Incidents
Members of Rockwood School District’s “challenge committee” support children reading sexually graphic books; district introduces plan to train teachers to use students’ “preferred name and pronouns”
The Rockwood School District formed a committee to review the children’s book It Feels Good to Be Yourself, a book that is based in gender ideology. However, the…
Incidents
River Forest School District 90 makes “equality of outcome their primary goal”; sees record-low test scores for students
West Cook News reported that River Forest School District 90 changed curriculum and teaching methods “to prioritize equalizing white and black student test scores, rather…
Incidents
Chagrin Falls Exempted Village Schools agrees to SEL curriculum that will cost $11,000 per year; agrees to contract paying Panorama more than $22,000 for surveys and professional development; previously paid consulting firm $22,500 to push equity initiatives
On September 1, 2021, the Board of Education of Chagrin Falls Exempted Village Schools voted to implement a new Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum from…
Incidents
Manhattan Beach Unified School District promotes Social Emotional Learning by celebrating “SEL Week”; commissions equity audit that recommends the school district adopt the “Social Justice Standards”
In early March 2022, the Manhattan Beach Unified School District promoted a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) week on Twitter and Facebook. Schools…
Incidents
Pulaski County Special School District votes to hire two outside consultants in the name of Social Emotional Learning: Panorama Education and QuaverEd.
On August 10, 2021, the Pulaski County Special School District’s Board of Education agreed to work with Panorama Education Inc. to implement Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) in…
Incidents
Flandreau Public Schools principal calls student into office for questioning “pride” flag; school district uses Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) material from group pushing equity in classrooms
On September 13, 2021, Dakota News Now reported that controversy erupted when a student was called to the principal’s office after questioning why a “pride” flag…
Incidents
Penn High School gives teachers SEL lesson on “Racism and Anti-Racism”; shows “Pyramid of White Supremacy” that leads to genocide
Penn High School reportedly gave teachers a Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) lesson on “Racism and Anti-Racism” in the week of March 1, 2021. The lesson included a…
Incidents
San Juan Unified School District implements “8 Point Commitment Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum” to include “Identity Safe Zones,” mandatory antiracism training
On January 6, 2021, the San Juan Unified School District Curriculum, Standards, Instructional, and Student Services Board Advisory Committee held a meeting that included an equity update. The following…
Incidents
Emails reveal plans to integrate LGBTQ curriculum into elementary school during SEL lessons; $25K grant secured to secure “Rainbow Liaison at EVERY school” in Howard County Public Schools
A 3rd grade elementary school instructional team leader and “RAINBOW representative” in the Howard County Public School System sent an email to colleagues full of excitement about plans to…
Incidents
Coventry Public Schools cite “Panorama Education” in strategic plan as measure for social-emotional learning (SEL)
Coventry Public Schools in Rhode Island have been using Panorama Education surveys for students in the 3rd grade and up across the district. (Rhode Island is one of the states…
Incidents
Fairfax County increases five-year contract to $2.4 million to Panorama Education, a government contractor cofounded by son-in-law of U.S. Attorney General
Cofounder Aaron Feuer spoke in 2013, as the company launched. On Sept. 9, 2021, Fairfax County Public Schools signed “Amendment 2,” a new agreement to pay $2,445,300 to Panorama Education…
Incidents
Penn High School’s Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum Includes Lesson On Microagressions
On June 18, 2021, REAL News Michiana published an article titled Penn High School’s Critical Race Theory Curriculum, Lesson 1: Microaggressions. REAL News Michiana filed a Freedom of Information…
Incidents
Savannah-Chatham County Public School System Pays over $95,000 to Panorama Education For SEL Surveys
The Savannah-Chatham County Public School System has announced that they will begin using controversial Panorama Education surveys for students and staff in the district. The District states the surveys…
Incidents
Moorpark Unified School District provides resources for parents to educate their children in antiracism and gender ideology; promotes social emotional resources from CASEL
Parents in Moorpark Unified School District reached out to Parents Defending Education with concerns about professional development and resources on the district website. One parent expressed the following:…
Incidents
West Hartford publishes “elementary social justice lessons standards and mentor texts;” transgender content introduced in Kindergarten
Parents from West Hartford contacted us at Parents Defending Education because of concern over the district’s focus on group identities in grades K through 5, including transgender content in kindergarten.
Incidents
Investigations
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
What is the the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL? The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL, describes itself as a…
Consultants
Panorama Education Inc.
What is Panorama Education Inc.? In an article in February 2013, Yale student Aaron Feuer described his decision to create Panorama Education. The article described the organization…
Consultants
‘Black Lives Matter at School’ in K-12 Classrooms Nationwide in 2022
From Boston, Mass., to Seattle, Wash., school districts, schools, teachers’ unions and educators around the country are teaching the controversial activist curriculum, lesson plans, activities and, even, official coloring book…
Press Releases
‘National School Counseling Week 2022’ reveals how K-12 schools increasingly try to get into children’s heads with activist agendas
Everyone cares about the wellbeing of children. Unfortunately, the launch of “National School Counseling Week 2022” from Monday, February 7, through Friday, February 11, illustrates how a national network…
Press Releases
Media
DAILY CALLER: Georgia School Refuses To Let Kids Opt-Out Of Lessons ‘Steeped In’ Critical Gender, Race Theories, Parents Group Says
A Georgia charter school told parents they will not be able to opt children out of a social-emotional learning (SEL) program, according to a parents group.
Media
AMERICAN GREATNESS: Don’t Buy into SEL!
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) was always a bad idea, and now that it is politicized, it’s a nightmare.
Media
FOX NEWS: Blue states blasted for ‘appalling’ move to use COVID relief money to fund CRT: ‘A trojan horse’
California awarded $15 billion for school reopening plan that included ‘implicit bias training’…
Media
NATIONAL REVIEW: Schools Push Radical Ideology under Guise of ‘Social-Emotional Learning,’ Parents Warn
During the pandemic, Traci Spiegel’s son and most of his Howard County, Md., classmates received virtually no mathematics instruction for five months.
Media
THE DAILY SIGNAL: California Teacher Describes Training Session Where Educators Were Pressured to Use Students’ Preferred Pronouns
A staff member at one of the nation’s largest school districts said he participated in a “cult retreat-like experience” during a teacher training session, according to a report from Parents…
Media
TOWNHALL: ‘Cult-Retreat-Like Experience’: California School District Trained Staff to Use Preferred Pronouns, Names
The Los Angeles Unified School District required its staff to participate in “socioemotional learning” training that involved educators agreeing to use students’ preferred names and pronouns.
Media
BREITBART: Biden Promotes Critical Race Theory ‘Trojan Horse’ with ‘International Social Emotional Learning Day’
President Joe Biden celebrated “International Social Emotional Learning Day” Friday, saying, “I believe the government has a responsibility to support you.”…
Media
DAILY CALLER: ‘National School Counseling Week 2022’ Shows How Educators Use Concerns About Children’s Wellbeing To Implement ‘Activist Agendas’
National organizations, equity consultants and public school districts are using mental health initiatives to push what critics decry as the tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT), including “social and emotional…
Media
DAILY CALLER: Georgia Public School System Shelled Out More Than $95,000 For Panorama Education Survey
A public school system in Georgia spent over $95,000 to conduct a “social-emotional learning” survey on students led by an educational organization operated by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s son-in-law.
Media
NATIONAL REVIEW: ‘Social-Emotional Learning’: The Next Fight in Education
A trendy new progressive education concept would prioritize gauzy (likely left-wing) ‘character development’ at schools over actual learning.
Media
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