“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.”