"Parents normally send their children to school (or park them at the computer for pretend school) to learn academic disciplines, including English, math, science, and history. But in most public and some private schools, more and more time is being redirected from academic instruction to &ldquo\;social-emotional learning&rdquo\; (SEL)&mdash\;the cultivation not of knowledge but of the &ldquo\;correct&rdquo\; attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and behaviors.
If this weren&rsquo\;t worrisome enough to parents who thought that is their job, SEL proponents such as the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) are now brazenly trumpeting an even more troubling aspect of SEL: the opportunity to turn impressionable students into leftist activists.
To some extent, socio-emotional learning has always been a vehicle for introducing leftist propaganda in the classroom. CASEL counts among its funding partners the NoVo Foundation, which is &ldquo\;dedicated to . . . moving [society] from a culture of domination to one of equality and partnership.&rdquo\; NoVo focuses especially on abortion rights, LGBT interests, and left-wing economics.
Other SEL enthusiast groups include the Arcus Foundation, which is all about LGBT, especially T (transgender). The Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility offers resources for using SEL to develop leftist attitudes about topics such as climate change. These are the types of outfits churning out SEL curricula to shape children&rsquo\;s opinions and behaviors.
Until now, CASEL downplayed the leftist slant of socio-emotional learning, presenting schools and parents instead with a sanitized picture of teaching children compassion and responsibility. But in the era of Black Lives Matter, the mask is off.&rdquo\;
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Trading Academics for Far-Left &lsquo\;Social-Emotional Learning&rsquo\;
&ldquo\;Behind the nice public facade lurk swarms of psychologists, psychiatrists, &ldquo\;educators,&rdquo\; and radical leftists hoping to exploit a century of psychological research for the purpose of molding children&rsquo\;s beliefs and &ldquo\;deconstructing&rdquo\; the values parents seek to instill.
&ldquo\;With a growing number of partners, CASEL is creating a more comprehensive approach to education, one that will lead to a more equitable, just, and productive society,&rdquo\; the organization&rsquo\;s website boasts under the headline &ldquo\;SEL as a Lever for Equity,&rdquo\; hitting multiple key buzzwords associated with the far-left &ldquo\;social justice&rdquo\; movement.
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In other words, one of the purposes of SEL&mdash\;as its leading promoters admit&mdash\;is to reform society.
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Among the webinars offered there are &ldquo\;SEL as a Lever for Equity and Social Justice,&rdquo\; and also a lecture on how to use SEL to &ldquo\;support antiracist practices.&rdquo\; Another webinar outlines how to use policy to &ldquo\;dismantle inequities.&rdquo\;
Again, the leftist buzzwords are everywhere. And that isn&rsquo\;t an accident.
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Under SEL Competencies, CASEL drops multiple bombshells acknowledging the far-left globalist indoctrination taking place under the guise of &ldquo\;social&rdquo\; and &ldquo\;emotional&rdquo\; learning.
&ldquo\;SEL competencies can be leveraged to develop justice-oriented, global citizens, and nurture inclusive school and district communities,&rdquo\; it states, adding that the programs will involve getting children to &ldquo\;assess power dynamics&rdquo\; and confront &ldquo\;issues of race and class across different settings.&rdquo\;
The children are also expected to &ldquo\;develop an understanding of systemic or structural explanations for different treatment and outcomes.&rdquo\;
In short, they are expected to believe the highly controversial hypothesis that America is awash in &ldquo\;systemic&rdquo\; and &ldquo\;structural&rdquo\; racism, and that only massive government-led social engineering can fix it.
The children are also expected to accept and agree with the artificial divisions being fomented along &ldquo\;race&rdquo\; and &ldquo\;class&rdquo\; lines as part of the now-obvious effort to &ldquo\;divide and conquer&rdquo\; America.
Put simply, this is all blatantly Marxist &ldquo\;critical theory&rdquo\; rhetoric masquerading as &ldquo\;education.&rdquo\;
It&rsquo\;s extremely dangerous.&rdquo\;
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https://www.theepochtimes.com/trading-academics-for-far-left-social-emotional-learning_3466722.html
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