Why Social-Emotional Learning Is Bad for Children’s Mental Health | Real Talk

One of the things I learned by talking to these researchers in the field of psychology was that it sounds innocuous. Ask a bunch of kids, how are they feeling? Well, what could be wrong with that, right? They could say, I'm feeling great. The problem is their mandate is teaching social emotional learning, teaching emotional regulation. Well, if you say, great, I feel great, there's nothing to teach. So it always heads in the direction. Now think of a time when you were in pain. Now think of a time when you felt bullied, when you felt left out. And then there's a second part. So that in itself increases dysregulation. By the way, it makes it harder for kids to achieve any tasks. We know this. Focusing on yourself makes it harder to achieve any hard task at all. I totally relate to this because I think that when I'm in a bad place, if I'm constantly thinking about poor me, poor me, poor me, what is the hardest thing I've gone through recently, right? I actually become weaker and less efficient. I can't even focus, right? Because I'm just focusing on how hard things are and I'm an adult, right? So I can possibly better regulate myself. But for a child to just take them down this direction of like, poor me, what is the worst thing I could think about right now? And then, okay, now let's go to math class. Right, exactly. And here's the thing I want parents to know. It's different with adults. So as bad as that is for adults, it's worse with kids and here's why. Because you're sitting around with your school counselor or a teacher talking about your trauma. So now you've told a whole group of kids they've been traumatized. Is that word trauma, by the way, used in school or the teachers are using this term trauma? Sure. Their mandate is trauma-informed care. We need to accept that most kids have been traumatized. That's what they say. Traumatized by what? Well, they'll say they list, it's based on a study, but it's a study that's been terribly abused. So they exaggerate the causes, but they'll say anything from climate change can cause trauma to police tactics can cause trauma. Being born Black can cause trauma. I talked to a wonderful teacher in public schools who was Black and she finds it extraordinarily offensive that kids are told being born Black in America means you've been traumatized and you have inherited trauma. But the thing I want parents to know is if kids are sitting around and doing this with their counselor or teacher, well, who was supposed to keep them safe from trauma? The parents. So very naturally, it always leads to a criticism or very naturally, it will lead to a criticism of the family, of the parents. Because of course, the next question is where was your mom? Where was your dad when this was happening? Oh, she didn't have time to help me. Abigail, why do you think the system is doing this? Is it just a thing that is snowballing out of control because people are just losing right for wrong, the ability to discern what's the right thing to do for children? Or is there a nefarious industry that is trying to break the family, over-medicate children, empower the government? What's your hunch on that? It's a great question. It's an important question. Is this on purpose? Is this as people acting together? Here's what I'll say. As a journalist, I try not to speculate on things that I don't have proof of. And here's what I have proof of. If you wanted to break kids down emotionally, if you wanted to break them down, there would be no better program than the program now in schools that goes under the headline mental health.