367 comments
This is a great document and something that counseling has been missing for a long time. I believe the emphasis definitely needs to be proactively teaching these skills. When a child is in the middle of a situation, we all know that learning is near impossible. Also, when implementing this I do believe that many high school students would benefit from starting from the beginning since they may or may not have had this or may need a refresher. High school is when things really get tough and they are making more of their own decisions and getting a lot of external pressures. They may need to go back to the basics of self talk, and identifying personal characteristics. I can't wait to see how we get to implement this.
Good Work!
This is awesome! I love how it covers all school aged children. I believe following the standards will reduce a lot of the issues you see regularly between students. When it's not a requirement or not written down, sometimes the students do taught this piece of vital information.
These "standards" appear well-intentioned, positive, and in my opinion are excellent topics to be ADDRESSED in supplementary courses/time during a student's education. However, these are issues and areas of life that are much better suited to be "taught" or worked-on with a student INDIVIDUALLY and from parents/guardians due to there being so many other personal, medical, and cultural issues related to these matters. These are issues that could be addressed/covered with students during sessions with a school guidance counselor or similar professional, but should not covered in an instructional manner that takes significant time away from their academic learning. Additionally, these standards should not hold ANY bearing on a student passing an academic course or graduating. Especially, given that many students have individualized issues (disabilities, trauma, delays, etc.) that could hold them back from passing/graduating when they are otherwise on track academically. Again, these issues are certainly worth covering BROADLY and GENERICALLY occassionally during the school year, and/or to be addressed with individual students in PRIVATE with a counselor or similar professional. However, these should most definitely NOT be issues that are addressed in detail with groups of students (this could trigger some students negatively and have adverse affects), nor should these standards hold ANY bearing on passing/graduating. If a student is identified by a school counselor to have deficits in any of these areas, this should be addressed with the parent and/or special education team to determine more individualized/in-depth ways to help the student develop these skills.
YES! YES! I like the initiative for standards. I acknowledge how important it is to teach the students where they are and children today do not all get the foundation of these skills before school. Especially in these isolating times after Covid! I would like to advocate for a program: Second Steps. The school division I was with in Georgia the past 4 years implemented this at all grade levels. While I don't usually like a scripted curriculum, this one takes the burden of what and how to teach these skills off of a teachers' shoulders. The wonderful part is the common language it creates at all levels Prek-12! The lessons are designed for about 10 minutes a day and are so worth it. I was teaching at the Prek level and the program is excellent! It respects students and is a great help to teachers. We need to foster growth for the whole child. We can better teach academics when the SE needs are being met!
How about going back to basics and teaching academics ? Kids can’t spell nor write in cursive don’t know our constitution nor are prepared to live on their own (no life skills like managing your money , cooking and nutrition or how our free market society works)! But they are getting super at blaming others for failure and playing victims! I don’t need the school to raise my child to be a “critical thinker” -i will take care of that!
From the document: "SEL is the process through which all-young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions."
None of these have anything to do with education at all. The family unit is the place for this kind of learning. Get back to the basics. My district-wide average on the CWRA was 56% for 12 graders! And only 72% of 9th graders are reading proficiently. This is a supposed top-tier school district in the state. You should be thinking about getting these scores to 100% before devoting one minute of your time to this nonsense.
This SEL plan pushes the social justice agenda big time in our public schools. Please leave the teachers alone and keep them teaching the academic information and leave the character development to the parents. This seriously progressive agenda is not needed in our schools. The focus should be on being kind to others, showing respect and treating others the way you want to be treated. Keep this leftist agenda out of our public schools.
As a parent of a school aged child in Virginia, I am appalled this being presented as something being taught in our schools. These are not topics that should be covered by a public school system; These are topics for parents and children to have. The "shaping of minds" that this agenda puts forth actually corrupts the minds of our children. Focus on the issues that make our students competitive in the work place, subjects that foster high demand skills/jobs, and allow our country to continue to compete in the global marketplace. Keep this hidden agenda driven stuff out of the school. Or else prepare to see funding drop as more and more parents pull their kids from public schools.
As a taxpayer, if this does nothing to get more kids into STEM-H fields, into teaching/education, into skilled trades, we should never, ever be required to pay for it. 2019 NAEP studies show about 1/2 the African American 4th graders were functionally illiterate. That is a slap in the face to their ancestors, who were denied the right to read. Now the govt. wants to perpetuate that. It is a blow to not only hopes and dreams of getting ahead for minorities and lower socio economic kids and parents, but also destroys hope for those who came over here to succeed. The vast majority of these folks are Asian American, who enjoy the highest standard of living because they work so hard.
This is not appropriate for public school! Please stick to teaching the basic subjects and leave the parenting to the PARENTS!
I am at a loss of words on how sick to my stomach these make me feel. All over our country parents are fighting this kind of indoctrination of our children in school! Do NOT pass this! These are my children and not yours! You may not teach them and have no right to say where they “fit” in a Keith or what influences them or their beliefs. Having them identify what “groups” they are in is divisive and this is not unifying.
I am ashamed as a former teacher that the schools are doing this! Shame on you!
Here are a few examples of standards that are concerning to me:
Grade 3-4
-- I can describe the multiple groups in society that help create my identity.
- my thoughts on this- For my children this is God, Jesus, church, their family, friends, how they serve others and their farm and pets) do you want to discuss religion schools because in our family we find our purpose and identity from God.
-- I can understand that people may face different barriers based on their identity and groups in society and that this is not fair.
Grade 5-6
-- I can develop an awareness of and comfort with my membership in multiple groups in society
-my thoughts- again this is not the schools place to help define or dictate where my child stands in society
-- I can describe my beliefs, values, and the multiple groups in society that help create my identity and inform my decision-making process.
- when my child shares their beliefs on god will they be welcomed? Can they openly share that they believe Jesus saved us and they live their life centered in Christ? If not, then these standards are discriminatory against people of faith
Grade 7-8
-- I can comfortably talk about myself and positively describe my various group identities.
-- I can recognize and describe unfairness and injustice in many forms including attitudes, speech, behaviors, policies, practices, and laws.
-THESE standards are a perfect example of unfairness. There are parent all over the country fighting this kind of indoctrination int be school system!
Grade 9-10
-- I can explain the difference between conscious bias and unconscious (implicit) bias.
-- I can evaluate how my membership in multiple groups combine to make me who I am and that none of my individual groups on their own fully defines me.
Grade 11-12
-- I can recognize, describe and distinguish inequity and injustice at different levels of society.
-- I can identify and work to address my own conscious biases and implicit (unconscious) biases.
-- I can make ethical decisions about when and how to take a stand against bias and injustice in my everyday life or community and will do so despite negative peer or group.
What rubbish. This reads like an oath taken for admission to a religious cult. Its repetitious use of the word "I" (279 times in the document) and "self" (33 times) seem at odds with what you are trying to achieve...decency and respect for others. Stay in your lane, Virginia Department of Education. Teach our children how to read, write and do arithmetic....plenty of room for improvement there. This kind of crap belongs in a dystopian novel.
None of this should be taught in a school setting. The far left ideology has no place in schools, which are supposed to be non partisan. This, like religion, is a topic which must be left to the parents to discuss. It is another overreach by the government. If it continues, prepare for a mass exodus from public education. People will not stand for it unless they suffer from group think or are socialists, trying to destroy our country and way of life.
You need to focus on getting kids to read at grade level and learn math, science, and factual history. Leave the rest to us parents. Stop the indoctrination of our children
School overreach! Not your job to teach this propaganda! Stick to academics!!
I do not support the implementation of SEL standards into our public school Curriculum. These discussions are for parents to have with their children. Just as religion is not taught in schools. There many different political, religious, viewpoints that can influence these teachings. This does not belong in schools!
Everyone is equal In the eyes of God.
See above!
The focus should be on treating others the way you want to be treated and showing respect to others. The VDOE should stick to its mission: to advance equitable (fair and IMPARTIAL) and innovative learning to maximize the potential of ALL learners. Promote student achievement and prepare students for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.
The focus should be on treating others the way you want to be treated and showing respect to others. The VDOE should stick to its mission: to advance equitable (fair and IMPARTIAL) and innovative learning to maximize the potential of ALL learners. Promote student achievement and prepare students for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.
This document does nothing to advance of the goals of developing young minds and free thinking citizens in this society. It reads like an indoctrination manifesto that aims to force opinions versus advancement of education.
This racist and anti American ideology using the "equity" propaganda is beyond absurd. The social-emotional learning proposal is completely inappropriate and out of line. You are not focusing on FACT and proper education. You want to force students to adopt your skewed personal views in order to graduate. This is not the Department of Education. Be honest and change the name to Department of Indoctrination.
What you are proposing to do to our CHILDREN is abusive and criminal. You are trying to snake this propoganda into an already vulnerable and crumbling school system with hateful educators at the helm of this runaway train to division, hatred and not a scintilla of learning to be found.
You hide these agendas under the guise of 'learning' and 'guiding' but really what you are endorsing, AND MAKING US PAY FOR as taxpayers, is a hateful agenda that will eject uneducated and hateful little humans into the world with no expectancy of successful living or futures.
You should not just be ashamed; you should all be FIRED for even considering yet another disgusting and vile implementation that has ZIP to do with educating children. DISGUSTING.
Guidance documents claims "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."
How did the "life ready" notion come about and why no mention of PARENT below?
Redefining Ready! was launched during the 2015-2016 school year to ignite a movement across the country to redefine what it means to be ready for life beyond high school.
This initiative changes the narrative about public education
so that the press, pundits, politicians and educational prognosticators would use more than a single test score to define the success of
public education.
College Ready Indicators
Students are College Ready if they meet either the academic indicators OR standardized testing benchmarks listed below.
Academic Indicators
GPA 2.8 out of 4.0 and one or more of the following academic indicators:
? Advanced Placement Exam (3+)
? Advanced Placement Course (A, B or C)
? Dual Credit College English and/or Math (A, B or C)
? College Developmental/Remedial English and/or Math (A, B or C) ? Algebra II (A, B or C)
? International Baccalaureate Exam (4+)
Standardized Testing Benchmarks (minimum score)
? SAT Exam: Math (530) | Reading and Writing (480)
? ACT Exam: English (18) | Reading (22) | Science (23)
? College Readiness Placement Assessment (determined by post secondary institution)
Additional Factors that Contribute to College Success
Earning As, Bs, Cs; FAFSA completion; enrollment in career pathway course sequence; college academic advising; participation in college bound bridge programs; senior year math class; completion of a math class after Algebra II.
Career Ready Indicators
Students are Career Ready if they have identified a career interest and meet two of the behavioral and experiential benchmarks listed below. In addition, students entering the military upon graduation must meet the passing scores on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) for each branch of the military.
Career Cluster Identified and two or more of the following benchmarks:
? 90% Attendance
? 25 hours of Community Service
? Workplace Learning Experience
? Industry Credential
? Dual Credit Career Pathway Course
? Two or more organized Co-Curricular Activities
Life Ready
Being Life Ready means students leave high school with the grit and perseverance to tackle and achieve their goals.
Students who are Life Ready possess the growth mindset that empowers them to approach their future with confidence, to dream big and to achieve big.
Our nation’s schools provide social and emotional support and experiences to equip students with the Life Ready skills they will need for success in their future. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/563cc0a4e4b0ceb001104a5d/t/5b0318802b6a2868277b2476/1526929538005/RedefiningReady_2017+Annual+Report-0418.pdf
What exactly are the "Life Ready" indicators? How about the financial and influence ties between the AASA, the Superintendents Association, and "partner" Panorama Education? They got together in Virginia Beach, Virginia. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/04/prweb15421150.htm
Exactly which school districts use taxpayer money for membership to the AASA, the Superintendents Association?
This technology site claims which some of the investors who had millions of dollars flowing to Panorama Education, a for profit company. https://xconomy.com/boston/2017/11/07/panorama-education-gets-16m-for-social-emotional-learning-tools/ About the children, huh? This proposal should be rejected and the only guidance given be how a parent deletes the SEL data already collected on their children.
The proposed HB753 is a terrible document. SEL standards "centered in equity" is a racist approach to Social Emotional Learning. Students do not need to be indoctrinated in school. This is not the job of the schools. Educate students in math, English, science etc. Leave our students alone and stop trying to turn them all into "anti-racist" activists. Why is the VDOE trying to push this through without properly advertising the opportunity for public comment? It is not your job to "teach" students about unconscious bias. It is not your job to introduce students to critical race theory in public school. The VDOE has lost its' way.
Stop deleting the communities comments!
These are inappropriate requirements for graduation. Stop taking precious time away from academics to focus on "Social and emotional learning". Parents are in charge of this aspect of a child's formation, not the government .This is nothing more than creating ideological slaves to the government. You deleted my comment once you best not do it again.
My name is Lynda Gruen. I am a former resident of Loudoun County, Virginia, and I also briefly worked as a teacher in Loudoun County Public Schools.
I’d like to start by noting that I could not find a direct link to the proposed document. Now, why is that? That's not fair to those of us who want to read the document, but are not that familiar with your website. Luckily, a friend of mine helped me find a draft version, I guess; but you guys really need to work on document accessibility here. Why isn't this information readily-available in state and local news media? I mean, it's not like you guys are trying to hide something from the general public, are you? So, this is information that should be sent to every parent and teacher of school-aged kids in the commonwealth, so that they can support or oppose or comment, as they see fit
So, first things first: all these proposed standards will be evaluated through the ideology of equity, as disclosed in the document my friend sent me from Town Hall (p. 5): https://townhall.virginia.gov/L/GetFile.cfm?File=C:%5CTownHall%5Cdocroot%5CGuidanceDocs_Proposed%5C201%5CGDoc_DOE_4780_20210329.pdf .
Well, equity as an ideology promotes discrimination against white Conservatives and potentially subjects them to socio-psychological abuse. Implement this divisive garbage, and Virginia public schools will likely become guilty of both.
I’m limited to 3,000 words per comment and commented once already on the standards in general, but let me tackle the first standard and equity here:
SELF-AWARENESS
Being actively trained to “recognize and understand the interaction between one’s own thoughts and emotions” is a thought process in which one reflects on one’s thoughts and related emotions. Well, human thought and emotions are partly universal and partly culturally-defined. It is the latter part that leaves me concerned.
In the past, this practice of reflection has been used in religious communities and in social justice circles, but it has also certainly been abused, even frequently among adults. In fact, it is a practice that can be found in cults.
Psychiatrist Dr. Robert Lifton, author of Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China” (1961), observed reflection being used abusively by the Chinese Communist Party as a part of their efforts to force people to comply with their accepted beliefs and behaviors. Dr. Lifton noted that there were eight characteristics of the authorities’ efforts to force people to change their thoughts and behaviors. Today, we refer to that collection of eight characteristics as the characteristics – or, criteria – for "thought reform", the term Dr. Lifton chose for brainwashing.
Thought reform is socio-psychological abuse. Dr Lifton’s eight criteria are as follows (per chapter 22 of his work, I believe):
Now, if you consider each of these factors, every one of them ties into equity ideology:
Milieu control: Equity-minded individuals seek to control the social environment, the access to and means of communication, social relationships, and eventually, people’s thoughts.
Mystical manipulation: Equity-minded individuals view equity as a moral imperative, to the point of viewing those who disagree with them as immoral or morally-deficient.
Cult of confession: Equity-minded folks – particularly white anti-racists – devote themselves to constant reflection and re-evaluation of their beliefs and actions. Are they doing enough to promote equity and anti-racism? Their job is never done, and that gets tiring. They've also turned "calling out" people into a sport - one in which the object is to accuse and condemn people publicly, sometimes themselves.
Demand for purity: No one can ever become 100% anti-racist, yet that is the lofty ideal held up, to which group members aspire. Those who do good enough are praised, and those who don’t make the cut, end up vilified, subjected to intimidation, canceled and so on. The folks targeted tend to be whites in general, consistent with the anti-white racist mentality characteristic of proponents of anti-racism and equity. The folks most vilified are white Conservatives, who are basically viewed as a lost cause, or toward whom it is morally-justified to apply intimidation tactics, in the hopes of forcing white Conservatives to change their thinking against their will. It is nothing short of socially-acceptable - and often, state-sanctioned - racism.
Sacred science: This is definitely true of the equity crowd. They don’t believe in diversity of thought and actively work to suppress alternative viewpoints, particularly when such viewpoints challenge the concept of equity.
Loaded language: In the equity crowd, the term “equity” would be an example of a loaded term. “Lived experience” would be another, along with “intersectionality”, “anti-racism”, “systemic racism”, “white fragility”, “gender”, “oppression”, "racist" and similar terms. These terms are used to establish a social pecking order. In other words, the terms are used to keep people in their places. Anyone who challenges their classification - other than redefining self, with regards to sexuality - generally ends up committing a serious infraction.
Doctrine over person: Equity-minded folks will ultimately favor their doctrine over any personal experience of yours that might conflict with their core value of equity.
Dispensation of existence: It’s called Cancel Culture: challenge their ideology, and they condemn or shun you, as if you don't exist.
So, there you have it: the equity crowd would seem to promote thought reform. This does not encourage academic freedom or critical thought; rather, it suppresses both. So we should NOT be framing these standards in light of equity.
Now, for those of you who don’t agree with my assessment of thought reform in the ideology of equity, I’ll use the example of Steven Hassan’s BITE Model. Mr. Hassan is a former Moonie and the author of “Combating Cult Mind Control”. For a little while, he was also a licensed mental health professional. Mr. Hassan’s BITE Model is as follows: behavior control, information control, thought control and emotion control. So, let’s look at equity, and then I’ll circle back to the self-reflection standard, SeA1:
Behavior control: Equity-minded folks do what they can to control the behavior of people who disagree with them. They do this by promoting the ideology of equity in public schools, in the workplace, now even in society more generally. More extreme members resort to online shaming, shunning, rioting and mob intimidation.
Information control: Equity-minded folks are all over social media. They actively report Conservative content; create Leftist content; some of them cyberbully, dox or might even stalk Conservatives or others who detract from their ideology; and they are supportive of biased, Left-leaning alleged “fact checkers”.
Thought control: Equity-minded folks jump at the opportunity to force those who disagree with them into equity programs, where their academic or job performance will be evaluated, depending on how well they change their thoughts to align with the group’s equity goals.
Emotion control: Equity-minded folks support manipulating the emotions of white people to further their cause. They have so little regard for the social and emotional needs of white people that they even use the term “white fragility” to dehumanize white people in the name of furthering their cause.
So, it would seem to me that the BITE Model kinda also points toward a cultish mentality among adherents of the ideology of equity.
Now, the SEL standards are supposed to be about "social emotional learning", correct? Well, why, then, are we basing them on equity? Because as I point out above, adherents to the ideology of equity do not demonstrate sound mental health or even healthy behaviors. So, instead of providing our students with good examples of socialization and mental health, we are deliberately holding up an unhealthy model.
Y'know, I used to be a public school teacher in Virginia. Sometimes the students can do a better job teaching us teachers, than we teachers can do teaching them. I would say that this appears to be one such example.
Whose bright idea was it to base these standards off a socially and mentally unhealthy example? Am I the only one out there who finds that counter-productive?
But getting back to standard SeA1 – personal reflection on thoughts and emotions: given that all of these standards will be evaluated based on the ideology of equity and that adherents of equity seem to support thought reform or cultism, I find it completely inappropriate for this standard to exist at any grade level, except that there be – at the very least- an opt-out option. I would be very worried that students would end up at high risk of having their privacy rights violated – and frankly, at high rate of discrimination if they don’t agree with the school.
These SEL standards.... WHY is there ABSOLUTELY NO EMPHASIS ON BOUNDARIES? ARE WE TRYING TO TURN OUR KIDS INTO ENTITLED SOCIOPATHS?! BECAUSE WE'VE DONE A PRETTY GOOD JOB AT THAT WITH OUR ADULT POPULATION ALREADY.
Man, I don't understand why you people want to make such a mess of Virginia public schools. That's such a shame for the students.
As a current employee of a school system in Virginia, I am pleased with what I have read in my review of the proposed Virginia Social Emotional Learning Standards document, which provides a simple, comprehensive, and developmentally appropriate approach to foundational skills for learning. While racial diversity within my district does not seem high, I have seen over and over again how culturally diverse our families are. Every child comes to school with a different tool box to learn and it is clear that we can no longer make assumptions that each student comes to school with the same skills. Those of us working with children need common standards so that we can begin helping those who are missing some skills and to recognize those who have strong competencies. Meeting students where they are takes nothing away from rights of parents to provide real world examples of these skills in action.
As I review many of the comments on this discussion board, I'm disappointed to see the fixation on the term equity. While equity feels like a buzzword that is popular to love or hate right now, my understanding of the philosophy for SEL is that learning about ourselves, how to regulate our own behavior, and understand how to work with those who are different from us are overarching skills that will benefit our whole community. Equity is a positive byproduct and perhaps we should not lose sight of the forest for the trees.
Not that any of these comments will make a difference. Maybe if public schools promoted good morals and loving families they wouldn’t feel the need for this. Pay close attention to pages 20 & 21.
This is complete over-reach and very marxist. Stick with reading, writing, and math. Let parents handle the rest. Teachers are not qualified to teach other people's children on these topics and are clearly biased and quite likely racist. Implement a simple no bullying policy, expect kindness and respect from all students, teachers, parents and board members alike and leave the rest alone. Again, focus one the basics as our children are all falling behind because of the school's venture into communism!
I am thankful that Virginia is taking steps to proactively teach these skills to students. The standards will help to ensure that all students in Virginia have the opportunity to learn these skills, which will ultimately improve not only their educational outcomes, but life outcomes as well. Thank you to all who took the time to develop these standards!
I am very opposed to the proposed Social Emotional Learning (SEL) standards. It is the parent's responsibility to teach their children about values and morals, not the school's. Stick to the basics: reading, writing, science, and math. This program is full of over-the-top partisan content. It is trying to unteach Biblical values and instead teach children the values of the Democratic left.
Enough of trying to brainwash our children to hate God, our country and our Constitution.
The department of education continues to overreach and interfere with family values and morals. Your job is to teach our children subjects such as math, English, geography, history (although I'm beginning to think you are not capable of this one), etc. Parents and legal guardians should be the ONLY ones teaching our children about our personal values such as appropriate sexual relationships and how they treat others. If their is an issue with a child's behavior in these areas the parents should be contacted and allowed to handle it. If Virginia schools continue in this direction, my child and future grandchildren will not be attending them. You are going down a slippery slope and it needs to stop now!
Social emotional learning, or SEL, begins at home and continues in school. SEL is sometimes called the “missing piece” because it links academic progress with a specific set of skills important to success in families, communities, schools, workplaces, and life in general. The three Rs are not enough! SEL includes the processes through which people acquire and apply knowledge and develop attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. SEL promotes significant improvement in social and emotional skills; attitudes about oneself, others, and school; social and classroom behavior; conduct problems; emotional distress such as stress and depression; and achievement test scores and school grades. More specifically, decades of research shows that investment in social-emotional learning positively impacts academic achievement, behavior, mental health, earning potential, long-term employment, housing, criminal activity, and substance use. Given the critical impact of COVID-19 and other important national issues on students, especially students from vulnerable populations, social emotional health and mental well-being are increasingly important. SEL serves as important Tier I instruction for all students.
Parent
School Psychologist
VASP Immediate Past-President
Please stay with your excellent and long overdue plan to tell the true history of our country.
SEL is a very important part of learning. I support schools and families working together to strengthen children's ability to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals. This approach may help students resist risky activities, have improved relationships and avoid costly life mistakes. I do not understand what specifically the other commenters are opposed to in this guidance.
I am writing to express my sincere disapproval of the SEL standards. As a 14-year teacher in Virginia, I claim appropriate experience in childhood education and I hold firmly to the belief that children should receive SEL instruction at home, from trusted adults and family.
This is too much. Teaching respect, courtesy, turn-taking, sharing, honesty, and other socially desirable characteristics occurs naturally through the hidden curriculum, assuming the majority of adults that work in schools are decent people. It also takes place in the home with family and in extra-curricular/community activities. These standards go far beyond what our already overworked and underpaid teachers have to interpret and pass along to our students. I'm not comfortable with my child's fourth grade teacher attempting to make personal value calls on what is mostly up for interpretation and then teaching that to kids.
It's ironic that something as subjective as social and emotional concepts are laid out in such a cold and surgical way. Standardizing emotions, which are individually instinctive and unique to every individual's circumstances, moods, and contextual relationships with others, is not conducive to developing young people's character, integrity, and socially acceptable behavior and attitudes.
Please leave this to parents, social workers, counselors, school psychologists, and psychiatrists.
Absolutely not! Completely opposed.
Do not indoctrinate our children. I know that the education system is incredibly powerful in that it can shape the attitudes and beliefs of the next generation. This is an abuse of that power by Marxists. Just because the SJWs cannot understand mathematics and science does not mean that our children shouldn't. Teach the children actual subjects instead of this abusive baloney.
Outrageous abuse of the education system, please go back to reading, writing, and arithmetic - leave the politics and social justice OUT of the school systems.
It was not that long ago, VA had some of the best schools in the nation!
Parents vote these folks out of office. Now
As a Virginia teacher for 16 years, usually teaching semester long classes, we simply do not have the time to teach our students these values. Most of the social emotional learning standards used to be and should be taught at home! The fact that parents are not teaching their children basic human interaction skills should shame all of us.
This is massive government overreach. All social emotional learning for typically developing students should be done through natural interactions, not through curriculum or standards. These standards address issues and discussions that should be left to the families of students. As a teacher, I am offended that school districts are not only being encouraged to engage in this type of "learning," but are allowed to spend funds on curriculum programs which discuss social emotional issues in an artificial manner. If you are truly concerned about social emotional issues among our students, allow smaller class sizes, shorter school days, and more access to the arts (which naturally teach social emotional learning, both individually and cooperatively).
As a Virginia resident with children, the public school system has no right indoctrinating my children with their views. These kids come to school to learn math, science, English, language studies, and history. Not your prerogative and views on who you think is racist. This makes everyone working in the public school system for racism and segregation. I’d rather home school that have children put up with this abuse from teachers and administrators that are supposed to be for helping children think logically and not brainwashing them with senseless propaganda.
I am a parent. I am a Christian who unfortunately likely has no choice but to put his kid in a public school. Instead of calling this propaganda or telling you about the infringement on family life and liberty to raise a child as you see fit I will go another direction.
Say government was full of people who believe as I do. That government decided that the emotional and social learning was important to children's integration into adult life. Nobody can argue that it is not.
So, the state government came up with guidelines inexorably linked to my political and religiously tinged base biases that cannot be removed from these subjects. Would you be okay with your children being taught based on my base biases? Would it not then be an affront to your parental goals tantamount to religious propaganda?
Eventually, these biases will be dismissed and a new collective paradigm will be embraced. Is it not then easier and wiser to let parents teach according to their own values?
This is a bad idea and precedent and remember, it is likely your viewpoint will end up being not the cultural accepted norm.
If this were a private school we could just go to a different school, that is not an option here. Don't repeat the mistakes of the past now that you feel the "right value system" is in power. You've become the thing the adherents to this value system fought against for decades. The caricature of the religious right in the eighties is becoming yours.
This curriculum does not belong in schools. This is the role of parents to guide their children's character and moral compass. I don't want anyone trying to teach my child about social injustice and what laws are fair or unfair. There is no handbook on this and to force someone's opinions on a child is overreaching. Stick to basic academics.
Opposed.
We should be educating our children so that they can think critically.
This document is an overt attempt to use the teaching workforce in Virginia to promote collectivism, identity politics, and dangerous postmodern theories.
This proposal has no place in our school. Coming up with this is a waste of your time and our tax dollars. Try spending your efforts on actually teaching our children on how to master the critical subjects of math science and English. Stop failing to teach these 3 items before moving onto something else you undoubtedly will be unable to succeed at.
When read in full, the SEL draft standards show some promise, but are also disturbing.
Forced group identification should be of grave concern to anyone truly interested in a diverse society. As early as first grade, the draft standards require a child to identify groups in society and soon after, their place in these groups. Who defines these groups? (the US census? visible differences? does the child self-identify?) What makes a group? There's no mention of race, religion, national origin, spoken language, physical abilities . . . what is unmentioned in the standards is more troubling that what is written.
I note the paucity of front-line educators on the implementation and advisory panels.
I respectfully request that the standards get a serious culling. As a start, eliminate the group-based standards in all age bands (that's 18/20 of the appearance of the word "group") and the bias-based standards in all age bands (that's 7/8 appearances of the word "bias").
Redirect the time and energy contemplated to implement these high-effort, low-benefit standards to real work to close the achievement gap. Let's have real differentiated instruction in the classrooms. Let's bring real measurement and data to the problem at hand. Let's teach practical skills to prepare a workforce. We need thinkers and doers, not children who have been taught what group they belong to.
When we group schoolchildren, it should be by their instructional requirements, academic interests, and career goals, not to further identity politics.
It is not the school's responsibility to teach these skills to children. It is the parent's job. I don't send my kids to school so you can parent and raise them. Your job is to teach them math, science, language. Leave your social experiments out of it. Stick to the basics. Provide a more robust counseling department if you want to help kids are not learning or are struggling with these skills. Don't subject all students to something that only some kids need.