I'm very disappointed in the VDOE and the way they are conducting business.  I've looked everywhere for specifics on this topic and finding documents that are not written in platitudes is very difficult.  After some digging and lots of reading, my conclusion is that I’m against Virginia using SEL in our schools.   This seems to be just another way to create more of a divide among our kids than to bring everyone together.  I grew up in a county that was mostly White and Black (approx. 45/55%).  As kids we had our differences, but mostly because we were kids and dumb. Even with our differences, we formed some close bonds. If this garbage was being pushed back then, we would not have been as close as we were.  The VDOE needs to leave social engineering out of its agenda.  We are trusting the state with our kids’ education and you are failing us.  We had to do a private online course for our kids last year because our school district could not make up their minds until the last minute about how to conduct school during the COVID pandemic.   I was not excited about the option, but we had to do what we had to do.  What we found was how much our kids are NOT being taught in public schools.  The courses were very tough and left politics OUT of education.  Our kids are better for it and they are way ahead of the kids that had no choice but to stay in public schools.  Please, for the sake of our kids and our country.  Stop the BS and get back to education.  Other countries are laughing at us right now because of these types of programs and the lack of focus on the sciences and history (the good bad and the ugly).