One look at Virginia DOE's Web site tells me the administrative staff have already drunk the social engineering SEL Koolaid.

Still, I question the validity of this program.  There is no research showing the carryover of such values instruction beyond the classroom, or any directly attributable, long-term positive changes in the lives of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals.

I strongly object to any effort by Virginia public schools to force--or persuade--children and teenagers to reveal their thoughts and feelings or engage in self-criticism to meet an amorphous, social goal by parentally unsanctioned authorities, using unvetted measures to assess their "progress."  We don't need more racially/ethnically based slicing and dicing, epithet-hurling, guilt-tripping, or finger-pointing.  We need peace and quiet so we can focus on our families and making a living post COVID.

Racial/ethnic prejudice (aka tribalism) will be with us always because it is a human survival strategy.  There is no society free of it.  As the U.S. and other countries, e.g., the U.K., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, have shown, it can be reduced, and its effects minimized.  That takes a long time and the earning of trust by actions benefitting the entire body politic, not just classified victims.

Touchy-feely-ism as envisioned in this document won't be effective.  It never has been.  It disguises the true nature of the problem.  Only relinquishing "the soft bigotry of low expectations" will.  That means tough love, even-handed discipline, and hard work.  It also means supporting marriage, discouraging teen sex and illegitimacy, opposing drug and alcohol abuse, and promoting investing, budgeting, planning for the future.  We cannot lionize the ghetto lifestyle and its flipside, predatory capitalism, and other debilitating, coarse behavior in our popular culture and expect young folks to forsake it for the straight and narrow road to unselfish self-esteem and healthy respect for others.

Where are the Virginia educators with the guts to embrace this radical common sense sgenda?