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The White House is seeking to play an even bigger role in the classrooms of America’s youth as President Joe Biden pushed curriculum associated with critical race theory on Friday.
Biden issued a statement to proclaim Friday as “International Social Emotional Learning Day,” which many feel is tied to a highly controversial curriculum praised by the left and admonished by the right.
“The past two years have been exceptionally challenging. But, as my mother used to say, ‘out of everything bad, you can find something good if you look hard enough for it,'” he added.
And after force-masking children across the nation for nearly two years and denying them the full spectrum of communication and expression, Biden proclaimed a renewed sense of understanding of how important it is for children to “see one another and hear one another.”
“One of the things we have gained during this time is a renewed understanding of how important it is to see one another, hear one another, and take care of one another, especially in times of challenge and need,” the statement said. “That’s what International Social Emotional Learning Day is all about.”
Thanks to @UrbanAssembly for engaging @POTUS Joe Biden and @FLOTUS Jill Biden to support #SELday “On this International Social Emotional Learning Day, we areaffirm the need to give schools, families, and communities the resources requred to enhance social-emotional learning” #SEL pic.twitter.com/YShEA4dAoZ
— SEL4US (@SEL4USA) March 11, 2022
He continued by proclaiming the strong role he believes government should play in the lives of young people.
“I believe that our government has a responsibility to support you,” the president wrote, noting that $122 billion has been allocated to “help meet the mental health, social, emotional, and academic needs of our students.”
The curriculum has come under fire from opponents that accuse its proponents of using it as a guise for pushing critical race theory, or the idea that racism is built into the framework of American institutions.
“SEL [social emotional learning] is the Trojan horse through which critical race theory and gender ideology is injected into children’s heads,” Parents Defending Education present Nicole Neily said, according to the Washington Examiner.
“After two years of disruption and learning loss from the pandemic, schools should be using every minute to help students catch up and get back to a sense of stability,” Neily explained. “Since 2018, SEL has had a destabilizing effect on children’s mental health, and that must be stopped.”
Proponents of the curriculum disavow any connection between critical race theory and social emotional learning but a research paper published last year by WestEd found the two were intrinsically linked, noting that, “individuals who have developed strong academic and social-emotional skills” are better equipped to connect with lessons using critical race theory.
The director of outreach for Parents Defending Education blasted the basis for social-emotional learning, citing that in 2018 an SEL advocate “changed the definition of SEL to make it a lever for equity and social justice, more about the collective and less about the individual child’s development of important life skills.”
“Lessons on sexual and gender identity, racial identity, and social justice activism in the earliest elementary grades are part of SEL programming,” Erika Sanzi explained. “Proponents claim it is research and evidence-based but it isn’t. On the contrary, we see consistent deterioration in the emotional health of students and staff forced to participate in these programs.”
In the 59-second promotional video on the Social Emotional Learning Alliance for the United States website, the narrator clearly announced that the most important subject to teach American children is “not math, science or literature. It’s social emotional learning,” but instead it appears to be a secular approach to trying to impose values.
“It’s helping young people develop healthy identities, manage emotions, show empathy for others, maintain support for relationships and make caring decisions. When taught by our schools, social emotional learning delivers long-term improvement in skills, behavior, and academic performance, while reducing anxiety, depression, and substance abuse,” the video said.
“Now with tens of millions of children experiencing trauma from the pandemic, we must invest in students’ mental health and well-being. The is a grassroots movement to promote, advocate and support this remarkable learning,” the video concluded.
(Video Credit: Youtube)
Advocates for the new teachings took to social media to call it “glorious!”
Just Glorious !!!!!!!
— Cesar A. Correa Larroca (@a_larroca) March 11, 2022
But many others expressed their outrage at the “brainwashing” that would lead to critical race theory being taught in America’s schools.
Yeah right. More brainwashing and opening doors to CRT. Gtfoh
— Cat (@caterinamarie7) March 11, 2022
#ExpelSEL #kidmarxismtraining pic.twitter.com/uEyvv68vFz
— Jennifer McWilliams (@Jenn_McW) March 11, 2022
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