Why Are Schools Still Peddling the Self-Esteem Hoax?

Is the Social Emotional Leaning (SEL) craze on the right track?

Before someone gets too excited with me, this blog’s title comes from an Op-Ed that Fordham Institute’s Chester Finn wrote for Education Week.

Clearly, Finn is concerned.

Among other things, he believes the current SEL program is just a rehash of the old self-esteem movement from the 1980s and 90s. And, Finn points to some compelling reasons to be very worried about that.

Finn talks about the shady way the old self-esteem movement was pushed as supposedly research based, referencing a recently published The Guardian newspaper article that raises very serious questions about the validity of that self-esteem movement’s research. The title of The Guardian’s article says it all, charging “ 'It was quasi-religious': the great self-esteem con.” When it comes to the credibility of education research, the article is more explosive than a large caliber Fourth of July fireworks mortar!

At the very least, this sounds like still more verification of my recent cautionary blog, “Education reform: Beware of experts.”

In any event, flash forward to the present and Finn now charges the same ideas that led to the self-esteem program are involved with the current SEL movement.

And, Finn isn’t impressed.

He writes about a product from the SEL pushing Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), saying:

“Dig into social-emotional learning's five core competencies, as laid out by CASEL, and you'll spot—among 25 skills students are supposed to learn—just one feeble mention of ethics and none whatsoever of morality. You won't even find such old-fashioned virtues as integrity, courage, or honesty, and certainly nothing as edgy as patriotism.”

Wow! That is a pretty serious list of omissions for something that is supposed to guide how our teachers work with students on non-academic skills required for good lives.

And, if Finn is right that the same, shaky-at-best “research” that underpinned the self-esteem movement is behind the SEL plan, our kids are in serious trouble.