Thread by @insomnochick

To those writing to me defending SEL: yes, I know they're "doing it wrong," and have said so, but you're missing my point. "They" shouldn't be doing it, period (they being teachers, in a classroom full of students who may or may not need "it").1/

If they have a student clearly struggling with emotional regulation, to the point where it's impacting their learning, and disrupting the classroom, take action individually. Seek help with trained counselors, and involve parents immediately. 2/

The conceit amongst teachers today is in their ability to mold and shape the mind of a child like a blank slate, improving upon whatever's there, and making them into whatever the teacher wants them to be through their teaching (think really bad parenting, on steroids).3/

So they use SEL on entire classrooms full of kids in an effort to replace parents because they (the teachers/education establishment/government) have an agenda that is DIFFERENT from the parents': SOCIAL JUSTICE. The individual isn't an individual at all. 4/

The individual child is but one in a GROUP, to which they're assigned by the establishment, and they have a job to do as a member of that group:
* BIPOC: FIGHT
* WHITE: ATONE
* LGBTQ: FIGHT and/or ATONE (depending)
* CIS-MALE: ATONE
etc... 5/

Finding out they are assigned these roles will create negative emotions. For starters, they directly contract what mom and dad are saying, things like:
* do YOUR best
* YOU are loved unconditionally
* sticks and stones...
* you charge your destiny (and should)
etc...6/

If you went to school believing YOU mattered, just as you are, and you now find out that's not true, and you have to be something and someone else in order to be a "good" person, it's going to cause pain and confusion, almost immediately. In step the SEL educators...7/

Now they teach your child to give voice to those emotions, and conveniently label them FOR the child with the only appropriate labels:
* white fragility/white rage
* generational trauma
the child has no option to challenge this narrative. 8/

Child goes home with these new beliefs and emotions, managed according to SEL lessons (which include a hefty dose of shaming, condescension and unearned guilt), parents don't see it unless and until symptoms show up: depression, anxiety, anger, self-loathing/self-harm and...9/

poor academic performance (duh). The child's pseudo-empathy (trauma-bond) with imaginary people outside their own reality -- a reality they no longer trust because (they're told) it's merely a reflection of their internalized racism OR implicit biases -- dominates. 10/

Parents panic, take kid to therapy, therapist is ALSO woke now, tells parent the kid has more work to do, and so do they, because the pain is their fault -- they are "rejecting" the better person their kid is trying to become, they are *in the way* of their child's happiness.11/

Parents have no clue this is happening to dozens, even hundreds of other kids just like theirs, nor do they know what's happening to the kids who don't turn their pain inward, because their assigned "agenda" or "emotional regulation strategy" is different.12/

Now their weakened, anxious, desperate-to-feel-good-again kid is at the mercy of the new merciless: the fighters, the ones taught to feel anger, resentment, even HATRED. 13/

Now I realize it seems contradictory to say kids aren't blank slates, and then argue they are so vulnerable to this sort of manipulation, but the two are not mutually-exclusive. The reason it's so damaging is their not "blank," their minds put up a fight, and sometimes win. 14/

But even when they win, they become cynical, mistrustful of adults (in general), and use their energy in school to just "survive," or "fake it." They don't learn what they need to learn to become their best selves, or achieve their potential. 15/

Some kids may even trust mom and dad, fight the teacher, remain individuals, and achieve academically too. It's not a guarantee they'll succumb, BUT the odds are against kids, especially those so-called most "at-risk," those with cognitive or environmental obstacles. 16/

Getting back to my point is WHY would anyone want teachers doing this at all? Not only is it not benign, it is extremely dangerous, likely for MOST kids in public school today. It is not the role of GOVERNMENT - to teach your kids emotional regulation, least of all en masse. 17/

It's a practical impossibility, easily manipulated for political or personal purposes (grooming, for example), and creates problems that interfere with learning so often, it cannot be credibly claimed to help improve academic outcomes.
Bottom line? FIGHT SEL, not just CRT./END

*CONTRADICT

*you DEFINE your destiny

*they're not blank