Education Next – Chester E. Finn, Jr.
“Call me a crotchety old guy and you have a point, but I need to vent my angst over a new report from the NewSchools Venture Fund, authored by the very capable Stacey Childress and her colleagues. They’ve landed with many feet on the social and emotional learning (SEL) bandwagon. Indeed, their new “insight brief” proudly declares that “enthusiasm for social emotional learning has reached a fever pitch among policymakers and funders.” That may well be so, but readers should bear in mind that while some fevers do good—the bodily kind can boost one’s immune system, not to mention getting overcome by election fever, a feverish desire to end poverty, etc.—other fevers can kill (typhoid, dengue, etc.) and still others simply drive you nuts (cabin fever).” (more)