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No, Social Emotional Learning isn’t a “Trojan Horse” for CRT.
I Wrote a SEL Course: Here’s What to Expect in Schools
May 2021.
My boss answered a Zoom call with his familiar “Eureka!” smile. His face lit up with the glow of a fresh idea bouncing about behind his eyes. Today, he’d discovered the perfect new project to occupy my newly-acquired full-time hours.
At the time, Social Emotional Learning had just become the hot new fad in education. With a nerdy fascination with behavioral ecology, I was ecstatic to learn about the field of SEL. With my work, we’d be able to use our computer science curriculum to help students process a year of pandemic and general societal difficulty. Though a tad stricken with imposter syndrome, optimism and the giddiness of a recent promotion propelled me forward into investigation.
Over the summer of 2021, I wrote a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) course. Very quickly, it became apparent that I’d gotten myself into much more than I bargained for. From the onset, the process provided incredible lessons that radically shifted not just how I see the field of developmental psychology, but also myself, and, more importantly, humanity.
Here’s what I learned:
