Virginia Regulatory Town Hall View Comments

Department of Education

State Board of Education

Guidance Document Change: The 2020 Virginia General Assembly passed House Bill 753 directing the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) to develop guidance standards for social emotional learning (SEL) for all public students in grades Kindergarten through 12 in the Commonwealth. The Virginia Social Emotional Learning Standards were developed in collaboration with an SEL Advisory Committee, composed of educators, community leaders, agency personnel, and parents. The Virginia SEL Standards are aligned with the Profile of a Virginia Graduate and centered in equity. This intentional focus allows the Standards to explicitly teach the skills needed to be “life ready” and to create more equitable learning environments.

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5/19/21 5:51 pm

Commenter: Arthur Purves

Decision process allows students to decide that drugs are okay. Better off with Ten Commandments.

The decision process is moral relativism: I can decide what's right for me.

The decision process has students weigh risks. Problem is teenagers think that they are invincible. This is a "lead me into temptation" decision process.

There'll be no attempt to measure behavioral incomes of this curriculum. At best it will accomplish nothing. At worst the decision process while allow teenagers to rationalize dangerous behavior.

You could save a lot of time and money and have a much more positive impact by bringing back the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. Would schools and communities be safer if every morning, a million schoolchildren prayed to not be led into temptation and to be delivered from evil? The message of this course is that there is no temptation and there is no evil. The word "wrong" does not even appear once.

The overriding message of SEL is that I'm not accountable to God for my actions and cannot turn to Him for guidance or strength.

CommentID: 98602