Social and Emotional Learning
Our town has an extensive Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) department.
SEL has it’s own page on our schools district’s web site.
Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic we were told our children were “resilient” that there would be no “learning loss”, etc. Yet in the wake of the pandemic SEL has become somehow incredibly important.
In fact, today, the top of our district’s SEL page lists “COVID-19 Resources for Families” and
has a passage that states: “COVID-19 is putting incredible pressure on families. You might be noticing your child is struggling in new ways, or that old
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problems are getting worse.” This almost a year after all COVID restrictions were lifted in the district.
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SEL sounds like a great thing, especially in the post COVID environment when so many of our children are struggling in the wake of nearly three years of social isolation. So what have we chosen to help our kids get over that loss?
Our town has chosen CASEL as our SEL program. The foundation of CASEL is their 5 point program as shown on the right here. What is CASEL and how does it relate to our children?
In the YouTube Video “CASEL CARES: SEL As a Lever for Equity and Social Justice” the President and CEO of CASEL,
Karen Niemi states “We believe there is no system more important than education to fighting against racism and we believe that our work in social and emotional
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learning must actively contribute
to anti-racism. SEL has the potential to do a lot of things. It has the potential to help people move from anger to agency then to action.” She further states: “We see SEL as a tool for anti-racism...
as a lever for equity and the critical role it can play in achieving those goals...
CASEL has been working for many years to advance both the research and implementation of SEL and service of equity…we’ve prioritized issues of equity in the center of our work for a long time.”
Is this program about helping our children cope post-pandemic, or is it a social justice program?
The North Andover Public Schools SEL depatment has 33 staff members according to the SEL page.
We have an adjustment councilor at the ABECC. At the elementary schools we have 6 Guidance and Adjustment Councilors, 2 Program Therapists and 3 Psychologists.
At the Middle School we have 4 Guidance and Adjustment Counselors, 2 SEL Program Therapists, and a School Psychologist. At the High School there is an SEL Program
Therapist, 10 Guidance & Adjustment Counselors and a School Psychologist. District wide there are 3 Behavior Analysts.