Social-emotional learning (SEL), like other subjects in our ultra-partisan country, has unfairly been criticized by the conservative right as being something it’s not – some type of “woke” movement designed to brainwash our youth to think a certain way.
What makes SEL especially interesting these days is that, even though it’s criticized by some as something that needs to stay out of our public school system, more and more school districts are turning to a SEL curriculum to help improve the mental state of their students and teachers.
This week, Kevin Bushweller from EducationWeek wrote:
“The emphasis on teaching social-emotional learning continues to expand across K-12 schools, especially at the high school level. That is the case even though there has been significant pushback against such programs, also known as SEL, in several states and many communities across the country.”
“Eighty-three percent of principals reported in 2024 that their schools use [a] SEL curriculum or program, up from 73 percent in the 2021-22 school year, and 46 percent in 2017-18, according to a nationally representative survey by RAND and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL.”
“Social-emotional learning – which aims to teach students soft skills such as empathy, managing emotions, and setting goals – aims to help kids develop the life skills they need to succeed academically and socially and be better prepared for college and the workforce. But critics say its inclusion in the curriculum de-emphasizes academic learning and often promotes a politically liberal agenda that does not align with the beliefs of many parents and educators.”
“To get a better sense of how SEL approaches are (or are not) working in K-12 schools, the EdWeek Research Center asked the following open-ended questions in a December 2024 survey of teachers, principals, and district leaders: What approaches, if any do you find are most effective in teaching SEL skills in your classroom, school, or district?”
“The responses showed a wide range of opinions about what does or does not work, from outright opposition to the concept to questions about its impact on academic learning to a full embrace of SEL as a key tool to improve student learning.”
“Following are 30 responses from educators:
Educators identify social-emotional learning approaches that work in their schools –
We place a strong emphasis on gratitude and empathy. Those two skills go a long way in improving the mood and culture in a school.
We have student teams who come into the classroom and co-teach with the teacher. Most students respond well to this but there are those resistant few who make the others in class not want to participate.
We have 8th graders leading lessons for 6th graders and some are very responsive to having peers lead rather than teachers lead. The lessons are mostly interactive and organized well.
Students do well with life application lessons that they can relate to their own lives.
Modeling by staff, coverage during Advisory lessons, empathy training and activities, and student reflection.
It depends on so many variables unique to a classroom, teacher, student body, building-level leadership, parents, community members, and district leadership. What works in one district or school will not work in another. While we all want a magic wand approach, there isn’t one. Addressing social/emotional learning must ebb/flow, must be customized, must be flexible, must be clear but allow for gray areas.
I feel it is most effective when taught in the elementary school setting.
I believe that having a curriculum to follow is a major factor. The second is training teachers, and the third is dedicated time in their schedule, like a morning meeting, to focus strictly on SEL.
Having a set of touchstone programs, along with a purchased consultancy, helps teachers, paraeducators, social workers, school nurses, administrators, and school psychologists frame and respond to mental health challenges. We also have a designated district SEEL Team (Social Emotional Education Learning Team) that helps us maintain our focus on student mental health.
Easy to implement and requires minimal prep. We have reached out to various vendors to determine which SEL program we will be purchasing for the 2025-26 school year.
Community Circles, small group, in-house ‘retreats’ where student groups unpack and discuss challenging issues.
Age-appropriate presentations; avoid overly idealistic content and expectations for ‘transformational impact.’
The SEL challenges schools are facing are significant –
I think teachers like teaching it and our state requires it, but I have yet to see real evidence that it improves student academic success.
As I teach special education, teaching social-emotional skills is integral to my curriculum, but that is not the case for all teachers at my school or in my district.
I expect 10-year-olds to come to class with basic cooperation skills, respect for the community, and basic manners. I spend a lot of time teaching basic ‘soft skills.’
The amount of emotional behaviors that are allowed in class and required by the teacher to manage is ridiculous. There is no training for an explosive student, and it causes mental health issues for the teacher.
Teacher attitude directly effects how students respond. The more comfortable the teachers are at using and modeling these skills the more their students embrace them.
Making the case for embedding SEL into the core curriculum –
We have found that embedding the skills into how we teach and what we teach has worked the best. When we tried to develop groups at the high school level, students felt like they were identified and there was pushback and a lack of participation in those efforts.
Because I teach high school English, discussing a character’s motivation and consequences aligns perfectly with SEL-type lessons.
I do it through literature and have done so for four decades. Why do we read imaginative literature if not to better understand the human condition and develop empathy?
It’s most effective when incorporated into core subject curriculum.
Let it occur in the regular classroom naturally. Teachers need to set high standards for students, then work with the students to achieve these standards.
SEL skills should be naturally embedded into the school day the way that it was done prior to naming it SEL and formalizing it.
Use your curriculum; when students go to science, they expect to learn science. However, you can help them learn to work together and be polite and respectful by using norms in your classroom.
Why some teachers are not fans of formal SEL programs –
Too much time is spent doing this for students and it takes away much-needed time for academics.
Take it out of the high school curriculum.
A good extra-curricular program and vocational ed program is the best SEL.
It feels like pre-packaged material that often isn’t applicable to our students’ needs. I find that sitting down, encouraging conversation, and actually listening to kids helps more than anything. We need to listen more and talk less.
[Use] small bits of information or skills that are not labeled as SEL learning.
We have advisory and have social emotional curriculum that is not graded. Students do not want to participate in the canned curriculum for SEL that we have to teach.”
Student mental health concerns are clearly on the rise in today’s K-12 public education system. More time needs to be allocated so that young learners feel a part of the learning day. The question is whether our traditional school system can do both – take care of kids socially and emotionally and also make them smarter and stronger when it comes to their reading, writing, and problem-solving abilities?
Til tomorrow. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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