Florida Really Is Declaring War on School Kids
Led by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Moms For Liberty and allies want to ban Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) in schools
This morning, my daughter texted me about one of our relatives who was sharing information from Moms For Liberty about book-banning in schools.
Florida has already banned school faculty from talking to girls under age 12 about their periods even though many girls younger than 12 have already had them. Countless Florida schools have endured right-wing school board takeovers and bitter arguments over which inappropriate, sexually-suggestive children’s board book should be banned.
“I haven’t heard of Moms For Liberty,” I told my daughter.
“They’re going after you, Mom.”
Since I’m not gay, transgender or Black, don’t support sexually explicit materials in school, and I do agree with some Conservative positions, I said, “What?”
Oh, but my daughter was right.
Moms For Liberty, Ron DeSantis, and his wife Casey and all of their friends are totally after me — along with any other teacher who understands the importance of social and emotional skills and wants to incorporate them in the classroom.
As a former test and text writer and author of a number of factual books for school classrooms and libraries, I understand how a positive, important skill can be misused and misconstrued for political reasons.
DeSantis and Moms For Liberty are twisting the meaning of SEL — but in one sense, I appreciate their straightforwardness in the matter.
I’m pretty sure that one of the problems SEL is intended to improve is bullying.
It makes perfect sense that DeSantis and Moms For Liberty would want to downgrade SEL. It reduces bullying. Conservatives have made noise for years about how bullying is good for children. In their view, traditions like hazing and bullying are valuable and important.
But the only people who think that way are bullies.
SEL is also intended to bolster the ability of students to get along with each other and work together.
It seems clear that DeSantis and Moms For Liberty do not want others to get along and do not want anyone but themselves to work together. Thus, it makes perfect sense that they would want to oppose SEL in any school curriculum.
None of the conversation led by Moms For Liberty is about the betterment and achievement of any child in school.
The endless debates over banning books do nothing to bring good books into the schools. The constant turmoil over teaching true history (sorry Ron, Casey, all of you — hundreds of billions of dollars in generational wealth did come from slavery, and then we add in the land and resources — right here in Florida from Native Americans — and yes, Hitler based the Nuremberg laws forbidding Jews and “Aryans” from marrying on US Jim Crow laws, translated and used word for word) — is intended to support what? A return to slavery? Taking what little land Native Americans have left to them?
How do these actions enrich you? Improve your life?
Is it really just the cynical grab for dollars and eyeballs? No, we were not taught these things in school and yes, it is a bitter, unhappy pill to swallow when the truth is learned.
What are you afraid of, if children learn the truth about these historical events? That they would be as sad and disappointed as I was when I learned them on my own as an adult? I guess so.
The main argument Moms For Liberty have against “Critical Race Theory” is that it makes children feel bad about themselves and their families.
Well — should they be happy that these things happened? And why should they take them personally?
Conservatives also state they do not want “globalism” and also spread fear and hatred toward other nations. But the U.S. cannot be safe and secure without an effective and efficient defense.
And there is no one who has served in the U.S. armed forces who has not had training and development in social and emotional learning.
The better military members understand social and emotional skills, the farther they are able to rise in the military hierarchy.
If kids don’t get education in these skills in school and enlist, they will need to learn them quickly so they can participate as part of their units and achieve their missions.
U.S. Would Have Lost WWII Without Social And Emotional Intelligence
Many of us have just viewed Oppenheimer, a film about the life of Robert Oppenheimer, the “Father” of the atomic bomb.
Think what you will about the bomb and Oppenheimer’s role. The movie clearly showed how Oppenheimer led the Manhattan Project, enabling the U.S. to develop atomic weapons and bring an end to World War II. While the A-Bomb didn’t defeat Hitler, it could have, and it did bring an end to the war in the Pacific.
There’s a character in the film who was very important in real life too, General Leslie Groves, the builder of the Pentagon and overall leader of the Manhattan Project. As portrayed by Matt Damon, Groves downplays his ability to understand the physics involved in the Manhattan Project but he manages the resources and necessary staff with incredible skill and aplomb. Halfway through the movie, Oppenheimer, whose major tragedy derives from the gigantic gulf between his brilliance in physics and his inability to comprehend what others different from himself are thinking and feeling —
Groves quietly points out to Oppenheimer that he is an MIT engineer. What a surprise we see in Oppenheimer’s eyes. In real life and in the movie, Oppenheimer seems to have thought Groves was a dumb grunt.
Who built the Pentagon.
There are many more forms of intelligence than ability in theoretical physics and quantum mechanics.
No one rises to the position that Leslie Groves had and made his achievements without extensive ability to work with others. Every man and woman like him throughout history has been a self-taught expert in Social and Emotional Learning.
I’ve been disgusted by how Conservative media has so cynically pushed “Gay Grooming” when children are at much greater risk from straight, protected pedophiles who are coaches, teachers, pastors, and priests. The push is so heavy that I’ve begun to wonder if it is not secretly funded by powerful and wealthy pedophiles: of whom there are far too many.
Now, my daughter says, “They’re after you, Mom.”
We used to ask this type of question when I was growing up and World War II was still covered extensively in school.
“If you were living in Germany and the Nazis came for your friend, what would you do?”
I do know what I would do, but I’ve had very different life experiences from many others. I don’t fear death and I value my soul and integrity beyond my physical life. So I would defend my neighbor and gladly give my life for them.
Millions of Germans looked the other way until after a few years, the bombs came for them. Their homes were destroyed. They lost their loved ones in the war.
Their neighbors were already gone.
Am I calling De Santis and the Moms for Liberty Nazis?
Well — the Nazis did drive out a lot of Jewish and “leftist” scientists — the ones they didn’t kill outright. These scientists contributed to the development of technology that eventually defeated the Axis powers.
The Nazis lacked the foresight, acumen, and humanity of General Leslie Groves, the builder of the Pentagon and the director of the overall Manhattan Project.
Another Way to Put America Last
I’ve not only written and researched extensively about empathy in the classroom, I’ve also worked for some of the world’s top International Schools. The International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme is the foundation of International Schools, which are among the most expensive and prestigious in the world. All of these schools share curriculum that includes social and emotional learning (SEL) at all levels, from pre-K to high school.
Every one of the International Schools emphasizes the role of their graduates in an international business environment. Not only are students taught to be multilingual, they are taught to be able to work together in diverse groups: ages, stages, backgrounds. The inclusion of these forms of education and training in IB programmes is a success. Major multinational corporations and even companies like the social media platform formerly known as Twitter request that their executives and leaders have training and ability in social and emotional skills.
I think DeSantis and the rest of today’s Millennial right-wing contingency are fear-mongering and rabble-rousing in a peculiarly self-destructive way.
I do not believe the world is going to go back to slavery. I do not think that women are going to agree to become high-heel-wearing Stepford Wife parrots with boob jobs, botox, and fillers.
I honestly don’t know exactly what U.S. schools would be teaching in “Social and Emotional Learning” right now because the entire system has always been very much against the way the skills are developed in Europe or advanced nations like Singapore.
You can’t throw a bunch of 7th graders in a classroom, give them a cake, and tell them to talk about their feelings.
But you can instill a culture of cooperation, mutual respect, and give them assignments to work on and learn together.
It only takes two minutes of conversation for two people to develop a form of empathy with each other.
It seems like Conservatives are pushing the idea that empathy is weak and bad.
But without empathy and the knowledge and ability to work with the most diverse group of 600,000 Americans in history, General Leslie Groves could have built neither the Pentagon nor the first Atomic bomb.
The Nazis understood manipulation, not teamwork. They put people to work in slave camps and sent millions of others to be murdered, recycling even the gold in their teeth. The Third Reich lasted a dozen years, not the thousand years that Hitler desired.
So, am I calling DeSantis and Moms For Liberty Nazis? Based on what you have read, what do you think?
Note: Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Curriculum is a multi-billion-dollar industry controlled by a small group of primarily non-educators. Our schools need education and support in social skills and emotional skills — in no way should what I have written be construed to support a multi-billion-dollar corporation selling curriculum. Curriculum and education are two completely different things. The curriculum used in International Schools should be non-controversial and it is proven effective.
I spend a lot of time talking to my friends who as clinicians, administrators, volunteers, etc., trying to improve access to quality mental healthy therapy and, as anyone with open eyes and half a brain will realize, at least adequate social services. It amazes me how so many so-called Conservatives are going the bizarro route. Conservatism means keeping your values and actions pretty much what you learned from your forebears. For people who deal in the law, it used to mean separation of Church and State. Now they're reinterpreting that to mean co-mingling of "Church" (definition provided by who is speaking loudest at the moment) and State. While I'm not familiar in any way with the official SEL program, it does sound a bit like one of the things we were expected to learn as children––how to play well with others. What it all boils down to (apologies to DEVO), instead of growing up and becoming adults, Conservatives are being encouraged to remain emotionally toddlers. They don't need to share, find common ground, work for the good of all. No, these days it feels like hate is great and we are being castigated for kindness.
Christian fascism on the march:
NEW: Evangelical Christians are fusing War on Terror counterinsurgency techniques w/ advanced surveillance tools to track down sex workers at regular events called the “Skull Games.” The intelligence they collect is then handed over to police.
https://twitter.com/samfbiddle/status/1685322841351208962