Back in early January, I wrote a commentary for Education Week (read it here) that focused on ways that those of us who care about SEL can get critics to understand why it's important that schools focus on SEL. If you read the blog, and scrolled down to the comments, you saw that I did not win everyone over. I actually had some people e-mail me to send support because they were appalled by the comments.
Unfortunately, I was not surprised by those comments. I was actually expecting them because I have heard those same arguments before. Unfortunately for the naysayers, they don't understand what schools are actually experiencing with their student populations.
To the naysayers I ask, "If schools could just focus on academics, don't you think they would?" Given the fact that they have standards and curriculum that they are struggling to find the time during the day to cover, don't you think that they would prefer that all students come to school healthy and ready to learn?
[For more on this story by Peter DeWitt, go to http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek...ls_are_you_sure.html]
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