WICHITA, Kansas — On the first day of school at Enterprise Elementary, Kasey Curmode gathered her second-graders on the carpet and posed a question: “What makes a good classmate?”
Someone who shares, one student said.
Someone who says, ‘You’re really nice,’ said another child, or ‘You can do it!’
Someone who doesn’t lie, or say mean words, or take other people’s stuff.
Curmode’s first lesson of the day — and of the school year — focused on feelings.
“It really helps these students … get into a positive mindset,” she said. “Some of them don’t know how to regulate their emotions. So even 20 minutes a day is going to help them tremendously.”
Social-emotional learning — often referred to by its acronym, SEL — existed in Kansas classrooms ever since the one-room schoolhouse. Teachers have long encouraged children to try hard, set goals, control their anger and treat others with respect.
But now it’s an explicit thing for teachers to teach. Social-emotional growth is one of five priorities for the Kansas Department of Education and included as part of the standards the state uses to measure students and schools.
It’s also the latest flash point in the classroom culture wars. Schools — their teachers, their administrators, the companies that sell them pre-made lesson plans — see SEL as a smart and nurturing way to make kids more empathetic and resilient. The same curriculum strikes conservatives as a back-door way for secularists to promote gay rights, racial guilt and something that blurs fundamental differences between boys and girls.
Conservatives took control of two seats on the Kansas Board of Education this month, in part by saying schools should focus on basic academics and leave the social and emotional upbringing to parents.
“A lot of people are concerned about indoctrination instead of education,” said Dennis Hershberger, who ousted incumbent Ben Jones in the Republican primary and is unchallenged in November. “Teachers … deal with things in the classroom that are much more about creating a society that most parents don’t agree with.”
Cathy Hopkins, who beat incumbent Jean Clifford in western Kansas, said on her campaign website that she wants to “protect our children from liberal education standards handed down to our schools by Washington, D.C., liberals” and to “return our local schools back to academics.”
Hershberger and Hopkins say social-emotional learning in public schools should be opt-in, meaning it would be taught only to students whose parents specifically OK it. They also oppose surveys, for instance, that ask students about their personal relationships or mental health.
During a recent Kansas Board of Education meeting, board member Michelle Dombrowsky voiced concerns about some SEL materials and reminded parents that they have the right to opt their children out of any activity that goes against their personal beliefs.
“Whether it be suicide awareness — I may take them for ice cream that day. They’re not going to be involved in that,” Dombrowsky said. “If it’s somebody coming in from the outside and discussing that. … Sometimes, if they’re young enough, it’s putting things in their mind.”
