As
they learn more about social and emotional learning (SEL) with its
data-mining, parents are in an uproar. They're demanding an opt-out and
deletion of all stored data. Some believe that if we can stop the
leftward lurch of America, we can "turn our schools around" and use SEL
as it was "initially intended."
But was the initial purpose of SEL really
to teach appropriate social behavior and support "mental wellness" and
"management of emotions," or is there a sinister underside?
SEL's Occult Connections
The term "social and emotional learning" was coined in 1994 at a meeting hosted by the Fetzer Institute, founded by New Age guru John Fetzer. Fetzer was obsessed with Alice Bailey,
the controversial occultist and organizer of the Lucis Trust. Robert
Muller, former assistant secretary-general of the U.N., authored the
World Core Curriculum that introduces students worldwide to occult
thought. A member of the Lucis Trust, his underlying philosophy was
based on the teachings of Alice Bailey.
The Origins of SEL
The
public assumes that SEL is just the latest education fad. However,
psychologists in the early twentieth century were tinkering around with
children's minds, trying to figure out how to condition them for
specific behaviors. Colleges of education are especially fond of
teaching about Pavlov's dogs to show how children can be "trained" like
animals to obey commands.
John Dewey, dean of American progressive
education, believed that the classroom should be used for social and
political change at the expense of academic learning. A fan of Soviet
education, Dewey introduced similar techniques in American education to
train students for the workforce instead of providing a broad academic
foundation.
SEL was key in Marc Tucker's
German-based plan to centralize education and change it from academic
to workforce training for a nationally managed economy. His master
plan, laid out in the 1992 infamous "Dear Hillary letter," was
implemented by Goals 2000, the School-to-Work Act, and the Workforce
Investment Act.
After decades of this socialist-style education
and psychological conditioning, the American workforce has gone from
being the best educated in the industrialized world to the worst.
SEL / Mental Health in Federal and State Programs
SEL first gained a foothold in federal law with Clinton's Goals 2000,
designed to change student attitudes, values, and beliefs. States had
to adopt the statute's National Education Goals to get federal funding
through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The ESEA's
reauthorization as Goals 2000 mandated state curriculum standards and
standardized tests, circumventing local control.
This led to more
federalized control with No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top/Common
Core, and the Every Student Succeeds Act. SEL was key in all of these.
Goals
2000 was reauthorized under Bush as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) with
heavy-handed federal intrusion and mental health grants for young
children. The Obama administration
allocated more than $150 million in mental health grants to test and
collect personal data of K–12 students. Under Texas's Governor Abbott,
mental health clinics have been added to public school campuses. Now
we're seeing the government taking more control with vaccination clinics
on campuses. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No
Child Left Behind, provides many opportunities for SEL funding through Titles I, II, IV, VI, and VIII.
State pre-K standards
are frequently aligned to Head Start and the National Association for
the Education of Young Children that use Critical Race Theory
terminology. Through these, SEL with Critical Race Theory is key in
most American early childhood programs.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP) is now testing for social-emotional characteristics, a violation
of federal law, and the Fourth Amendment right to privacy.
Common Core Déjà Vu
Despite
a public firestorm when student academic performance spiraled downward
with Common Core, the curriculum standards were not abolished at the
local or state level. Instead, they were codified at the federal level
in ESSA. Instead of ending NCLB and returning educational control to
the states, ESSA actually cemented federal control.
Not only did ESSA codify Common Core, but it changed the primary purpose of education from academic to social and emotional learning (SEL).
Vehicle for CRT
Various
provisions of ESSA either encourage or even require the inclusion of
SEL in schools. All SEL programs include sexuality, gender, race,
racism, class, and the nuclear family.
The teacher union's NEA Global Learning Fellow and teacher, Wendy Turner,
is quoted saying, "SEL is the foundation, the heartbeat of the
classroom." Does this indicate that CRT is the "foundation, the
heartbeat of the classroom"?
The federal government is pushing SEL and Critical Race Theory into public schools through the American Rescue Plan 2021. To
receive federal grants, the school is required to spend at least 20% on
SEL and "free, antiracist therapy for White educators" to get the
grant.
The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional
Learning (CASEL), a leading SEL provider, lists several Critical Race
Theory terms in its five core "Competencies with Equity Focus,"
including cultural competency, diversity, inequity, equity, racial
equity, and inclusive. Psychological manipulation is found in the "Self
Awareness" core competency — "awareness of beliefs, mindsets, and
biases" and "how they influence one's behavior."
More Billions for Billionaires
CASEL is funded by the usual left-wing billionaires: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Robert Wood Johnson.
For
vendors, CRT programs mean new sales. At the district and school
levels, these programs are supported by a top-heavy staff earning
six-figure salaries. For investors, SEL is a golden goose.
Can Parents Opt Out of SEL Assignments?
Opting
one's child out of SEL assignments sounds simple enough. In reality,
it's virtually impossible. The U.S. Education Department's handbook, "Roadmap to Reopening Safely and Meeting All Students' Needs,"
states that not only is SEL taught explicitly, but "social and
emotional skills, habits, and mindsets" are "integrated" broadly within
the learning process.
With the vast entanglement of SEL at all
levels, how can parents access, much less get deleted, all of the data
collected in numerous settings over the years?
Conclusion
School
boards and educators — even parents — have naïvely bought the Marxist
bill of goods that SEL is vital to deal with student mental
problems. The fact is that public education has created the mental
health crisis through its radical sex curriculum. Youths have become violent, murderers, sociopaths, sex predators, and God-haters.
SEL
is doing what it was initially intended to do: instill a new value
system including socialism, population control, radical
environmentalism, and LBGT. With socialist workforce training and
radical sex instead of academic learning, America now has a crazed youth
and the dumbest workforce in the industrialized world. This is a catastrophic threat to our national economy.
Unless
SEL is abolished entirely, it will continue as has Common Core and
create irreversible damage. Since the purpose of public education is to
educate youths for a Marxist society, abolishing SEL is merely a pipe
dream. The only solution is a mass exodus from public education before
it's too late.
Carole Hornsby Haynes is an education policy analyst/curriculum specialist, historian, and publisher of the Haynes Report. www.drcarolehhaynes.com, chaynes@drcarolehhaynes.com
