The White House celebrated a controversial school curriculum with ties to critical race theory in a proclamation Friday.
President Joe Biden proclaimed Friday as “International Social Emotional Learning Day,” drawing praise from SEL curriculum providers and criticism from parent activists who have decried the curriculum as a Trojan horse for injecting critical race theory into public schools.
“One of the things we have gained during this time is a renewed understanding of how important it is to see one another, hear one another, and take care of one another, especially in times of challenge and need,” the president’s proclamation said. “That’s what International Social Emotional Learning Day is all about.”
Thanks to @UrbanAssembly for engaging @POTUS Joe Biden and @FLOTUS Jill Biden to support #SELday “On this International Social Emotional Learning Day, we areaffirm the need to give schools, families, and communities the resources requred to enhance social-emotional learning” #SEL pic.twitter.com/YShEA4dAoZ
— SEL4US (@SEL4USA) March 11, 2022
Social-emotional learning, a curriculum that purports to teach young students empathy and understanding, has been the target of criticism from parents amid a national backlash against critical race theory, which says that American institutions and culture are systemically racist and oppressive to racial minorities.
CONSERVATIVE ACTIVISTS CALL ‘SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING’ A TROJAN HORSE FOR CRITICAL RACE THEORY
Nicole Neily, president of the parent activist organization Parents Defending Education, said that “SEL is the Trojan horse through which critical race theory and gender ideology is injected into children’s heads.”
“After two years of disruption and learning loss from the pandemic, schools should be using every minute to help students catch up and get back to a sense of stability,” Neily said. “Since 2018, SEL has had a destabilizing effect on children’s mental health, and that must be stopped.”
The curriculum companies of SEL have flatly denied that their lessons have any connection to critical race theory, but a 2021 research paper by the education nonprofit organization WestEd directly tied social-emotional learning to critical race theory, saying that “individuals who have developed strong academic and social-emotional skills” can better understand lessons presented through the lens of critical race theory.
Parents Defending Education’s director of outreach said that “social emotional learning sounds nice, and perhaps it used to be,” but noted that in 2018, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, a group of SEL experts, “changed the definition of SEL to make it a lever for equity and social justice, more about the collective and less about the individual child’s development of important life skills.”
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“Lessons on sexual and gender identity, racial identity and social justice activism in the earliest elementary grades are part of SEL programming,” Erika Sanzi said. “Proponents claim it is research and evidence based but it isn’t. On the contrary, we see consistent deterioration in the emotional health of students and staff forced to participate in these programs.”
The presidential proclamation made no mention of race, gender, or social justice activism, all of which Sanzi said is incorporated into SEL.
