November 4, 2022
By Sharisa Masterson
I never thought that I would see Ayn Rand’s Anthem paint the catastrophe that is brewing here in The United States of America. That we would slowly become a Marxist state set on indoctrinating our children to think and act as the state dictates; and punish parents for teaching their children values that are determined by the parents.
How is America becoming a socialist society similar to Ayn Rand’s book?
It begins with the littlest members of society, our children. This socialistic ideology is being taught in our schools, without parents’ knowledge. I have seen it. My children’s values have been skewed by the ideologies being taught today. A major culprit of this distorted perspective comes from Social-Emotional Learning (SEL).
Social-Emotional Learning is described as “the process of developing the self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for school, work, and life success.” That sounds important, right? We are developing our children’s identity to help them to better interact with others. However, school is meant to teach academics not social and emotional manipulation. SEL effectively usurps the role of parents in teaching their children the morals and character development they see fit.
Parents are the cornerstone of their children developing into social and emotional experts. Research has consistently proven that social and emotional development is accomplished most successfully in the earliest years via primary caregivers. Psychoanalyst Erica Komisar says, “It is indisputable that the first three years [of life] present a crucial, formative window”. This time is critical. Countries such as Sweden have exposed the problems with placing young children in daycare (90 percent of 18-months to 5-year-olds are in daycare in Sweden). The state taking over the care of the children has led to:
“[M]ental health among Swedish 15-year-olds declined faster from 1986 to 2002 than in eleven comparable European countries. For girls, rates of poor mental health tripled during this period, from nine to 30 percent … The increase happened in all groups of youth regardless of family situation, labour market situation or parental socioeconomic status.”
The fact is that when parents become less a part of their child’s development, the child’s social and emotional health declines.
As we place more and more of the responsibility on daycares and teachers to connect with our kids through social emotional learning, they become less ours and more the children of the state. Teachers who have no professional degree are asked to practice clinical psychology on children who have no mental disease. Psychologist Dr. Gary Thompsonspecified that placing this responsibility in untrained hands even if it is meant well may lead to children being improperly labeled, forced treatment, threatened, or even removed from their homes if parents refuse treatment.
Not only are teachers taking on a new role that they are not qualified for, but every state has to report back to the federal government on non-academic factors like SEL in order to receive federal money, which means children have to be taught what the government determines are “correct social skills”.
The definition of “social skills” is ever changing, and more focused on pluralistic indoctrination. “In 2022 The Education Trust and CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning), reviewed policies in all 50 states to highlight how states are supporting student needs by prioritizing social, educational, and academic development (SEAD) and where state policies threaten equity and diversity, including state efforts to limit the accurate teaching of history and current events.” From this quote we can gather that The Education Trust and CASEL are controlling what our children learn and determining how it is presented to them.
Wait…groups such as CASEL are changing history and current events taught to our children? That sounds like a very bad idea. It may even remind people of Hitler and his regime. They changed history by exaggerating German history and literature, lying about science, and forcing citizens to study Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”. Everything taught in schools was designed to fit their agenda and created children of the state. They no longer had ties to their parents and morals, only the state.
Not only are children being taught altered history and current events in America, but in 2020 CASEL developed a new adaptation of SEL called Transformative SEL. The prior Social-Emotional Learning spoke about “self-awareness,” “self-management,” and “social-awareness”. Now these terms are replaced with phrases such as “integrated identity,” “critical social awareness,” and “transformative citizenship”. This points to a global initiative led by none other than the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partners.
On the UNESCO website there is a section called “Forming a Global Collective on SEL”. This idea is focused on removing cultural differences and creating a ‘common’ and ‘unified’ message to parents and the public. The website indicates that people’s family and history are inconsequential compared to the global collective. In other words they are saying forget about your heritage, and your story, just do what we are telling you without objection.
We need to take action against the “We”, or socialistic ideology, that is reaching into our schools and removing our children’s rights to think freely and develop personal character. Parents must research what is being taught in their schools and stand up against SEL curriculum. If SEL is already a requirement in your community advocate for programs that are unconnected to the global SEL corporation. Kimberly Ells suggests four options that are separate from UNESCO: My Hero Journey, Real Essentials, Dash Into Learning, and The Positivity Project.
Using these programs and others like them will allow communities to provide resources that reflect the values of the people in the community. Communities don’t need to look to a global institution to teach children social and emotional skills. Instead, the focus needs to be on social emotional skills being taught at home and supported in the classroom.
Now is the time to stand and fight for children. Reserving their rights free from a pluralistic agenda. Kids deserve to live in America with an accurate understanding of its history and all the power that comes from the bill of rights. This will only be realized as we work to protect these freedoms, and a very important way of accomplishing this is by protecting our children from Social and Emotional Learning dictated by a global initiative.
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