A Think Twice Review of:

Review of The Unexamined Rise of Therapeutic Education: How Social-Emotional Learning Extends K-12 Education's Reach Into Students' Lives and Expands Teachers' Roles

Think Twice - Feb 21, 2022

Publisher/Think Tank - American Enterprise Institute

Author(s) - Robert Pondiscio

A recent report from the American Enterprise Institute presents concerns regarding how Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) approaches have imposed ideas and techniques from psychology on classroom practices, and thus have shifted the mission of education away from academic instruction. But a review of the report finds misrepresentations of both the definition and the goals of SEL.

Reviewer(s) - Julia Mahfouz, University of Colorado Denver

Julia Mahfouz of the University of Colorado Denver reviewed The Unexamined Rise of Therapeutic Education: How Social-Emotional Learning Extends K-12 Education's Reach Into Students' Lives and Expands Teachers' Roles and found it to be biased and misleading. The report warns that the rise in SEL has led schools to assume powers and responsibilities beyond their core mission of focusing on academic skills, claiming that teachers are unprepared to take on "therapeutic" responsibilities. In doing so, however, the report ignores the empirical evidence documenting the positive influence that SEL has on students' well-being, academic achievement, and sense of citizenship.