Bill targets social emotional learning
Feb. 5—CONCORD — Cordelia Dubois, a first grader from Concord, joined nearly 4,000 people online in urging New Hampshire lawmakers to reject legislation that would eliminate the teaching of social emotional learning in public schools.
"I do not like that because SEL class helps me to stay calm and be happier," Dubois told the House Education Committee on Monday.
Rep. John Sellers, R-Bristol, said social emotional learning has infiltrated instruction of all subjects and has allowed teachers to collect and then share private information about students' mental health.
"I think it is usurping the family," Sellers said.
The panel also took testimony on legislation (HB 1185) that would outlaw all references to gender identity in sex education curriculum.
Included as part of the regular curriculum, social emotional learning incorporates the teaching of coping skills that supporters say students will need to be emotionally secure adults.
During a public hearing on his bill (HB 1473), Sellers offered an amendment that would permit SEL, but give parents the right to opt out from having their children take part in surveys or assessments about their emotional well-being.
Sellers said Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut suggested this alternative proposal to him.
Social emotional learning goes on at Spaulding Academy and Family Services in Northfield, a private program that educates 76 students, ages 5 to 22, with behavioral problems who can't function in public school.
Spaulding makes use of the Choose Love program designed by Scarlett Lewis, the mother of a young child killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in 2012.
Principal Garrett LaVallee said the program has led to dramatic improvement in students' mental health and well-being, as well as their academic performance.
State law requires the teaching of suicide prevention at least once a year in schools.
Program supporters said HB1473 would be a major step backward and could make students less safe.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among teenagers in New Hampshire, after motor vehicle accidents.
Anti-public schools?
Mary Steady, director of public services at the Lincoln-Woodstock Cooperative District, charged the bill's aim was to make public schools less popular among families.
"The legislation is not just impractical and illogical; indeed, it borders on the ludicrous," Steady said.
"This seems more about a profound and troubling trend, the absolute dismantling of the public school system."
Speaking in favor of the bill, Linda Phillips of Bristol said SEL permits teachers to practice mental health therapy even if they aren't qualified to do so.
"Most parents are concerned about the promotion of ideological and political ends easily slipped into SEL practices," Phillips said.
Ann Marie Banfield, a conservative education advocate, said teachers have properly deployed SEL for decades. But parents should give permission before their children are asked personal questions, she said.
Federal law requires parental consent to a student filling out a mental health survey, but many times they aren't asked in advance, Banfield said.
While 117 signed up in support of the bill online, 3,798 opposed it. The committee used a second room in the Legislative Office Building to accommodate all who came to testify.
Too early?
Rep. Karen Reid, R-Deerfield, who authored the bill on sex education (HB 1185), said that as a school nurse, she has seen schools teaching alternative lifestyles at too early an age.
"They are using these standards and related curriculum to promote a radical gender identity ideology that denies science and creates dangerous conflicts between parents and their children and between the child and their own psyche," Reid said.
Opponents maintained the bill would run afoul of a New Hampshire law that bans discrimination because of gender identity in public schools.
Amy Manzelli of Pembroke spoke on behalf of her trans daughter, Iris, 14.
"It unlawfully targets the LGBTQ+ community for no reason," Manzelli said. "Passing laws like this would be an unfounded seizure of civil rights."
