Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) – New Discourses

The Marxification of Education Workshop, Session 4 of 4

The hottest buzzword in education today is Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), but it’s not just a buzzword. It’s a huge program with almost universal installation (thanks to the Every Student Succeeds Act, ESSA, of 2015) and billions upon billions of dollars behind it. What is it? Where did it come from? Should we trust it? To the last of these questions, there are excellent reasons to believe that we shouldn’t. In fact, we shouldn’t want it anywhere near our children and should fight vigorously to protect them from it. We should also see there’s a huge scam operating within the installation of it and that some very questionable actors are strongly behind it, but for what reasons? Here, New Discourses Founder James Lindsay gives a deep, concerning, and thorough (but mere) introduction to the topic of Social-Emotional Learning in this last of four presentations on the Marxification of Education delivered in late July 2022 in Arlington, Virginia, on location in the now-famous Loudoun County, ground zero for the fight for America’s schools.

Session 1: The Critical Turn in Education
Session 2: Paulo Freire’s “Critical” Method of Education
Session 3: “Groomer Schools”

The audio version of this presentation is available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or by RSS.