The Child Mind Institute defines Social Emotional Learning (SEL) as: “the way children acquire social and emotional skills. It includes things like managing difficult emotions, making responsible decisions, handling stress, setting goals, and building healthy relationships.”

In the new Health Standards, the Michigan Department of Education stresses the importance of providing a “well-rounded education that helps support the whole child.” The standards guide school staff to focus on student well-being, including social and emotional behaviors and stress management, and to apply these competencies throughout the curriculum and “in every area of content.” The standards strive to “foster equity-focused and trauma informed strategies” as well as cultivate a sense of belonging and skills in self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, decision making, and relationship building.

After the MDE shared the first draft of the new Health Standards with the State Board of Education this past September, the standards made the rounds for feedback. One of the more public platforms of debate was when Interim State Superintendent Dr. Sue C. Carnell presented the draft to the House Oversight Committee on October 28, 2025.

While many of the Committee members questioned and expressed utter disbelief at the inclusion of gender ideology, there were two senators in particular who additionally questioned the saturation of SEL.

State Senator Lana Theis, former Chair of the Education Committee for the Michigan State Senate, shared her views on SEL during the Oversight meeting. Theis referenced the Neo-Pi-R personality test used by psychologists to identify neuroticism. She explained that the test defines self-consciousness as a subset of neuroticism and reports no identifiable difference between being anxious, depressed, or self-conscious. “Yet,” Theis said, “all SEL does is tell students to keep checking in with their feelings. We’re causing them anxiety. We’re causing them depression. We’re not strengthening them in any way.”

Theis said that the push of SEL makes self-consciousness even worse, especially for pubescent girls. “I have never met a woman who thought going through puberty was a good time… [or who was] perfectly comfortable with her body going through puberty,” she said. Rather than spiraling into SEL, Theis said you tell the kids, "Yes, it’s uncomfortable, but you’ve got this." You encourage them and tell them how amazing it will be on the other side.

“SEL training is like group therapy combined with a struggle section and is, of itself, causative of trauma,” Theis said.

She explained that kids are releasing information in the classroom as a part of SEL that they have no business telling other kids, sharing what that they wouldn’t otherwise tell were they not feeling pressured.

“So, what would actually help them?” Theis asked. “We focus them outwardly. We tell them to figure out how to help others. To treat others the way they would like to be treated. We don’t need to tribalize these kids. You treat everybody with respect. You treat everybody with kindness… You don’t ask them to identify their tribes and make it worse.”

Theis also told about a book in which three hostages, to maintain their sanity, would identify things every night night that made them grateful. And that’s what stabilized their mental health. “This emphasis on trauma-informed language creates iatrogenic harm,” Theis said. “Not all kids need to receive information as if they’ve undergone trauma… You should be treating the actual victims. You should be treating the actual kids that need help. But this is not something you can scale school wide. It shouldn’t be done.”

State Representative Jamie Thompson told the House Oversight Committee that she opposes the formal adoption of SEL incorporated into the Health Standards. She shared a review by the National Education Policy Center that notes that many SEL programs push to make SEL central to schooling, raising issues about what exactly the role of the school is versus the role of the family—meaning we do not co-parent with the government.

Thompson said there are critics who question whether SEL diverts time and resources from actual academics. There is also concern for parental rights—not the rights of the Michigan Board of Education. “Parents have raised objections,” Thompson said, “that SEL curriculum may encroach on their value system, their own character, and their beliefs… Areas where families believe [schools] should be refraining from... I believe this is a huge circumvention of the law.”

At the November 13 State Board of Education meeting, many public commenters spoke against the gender ideology in the Health Standards. There was also objection to the inclusion of SEL. One of the public commenters said, “Kids are subjected to personality quizzes, self-reflection, prompts, and empathy exercises. There's no escape... Learning is not therapy. You're treating reading failure with therapy instead of teaching kids to read… We don't want you to probe the minds of our children and shape their world views. Nor should teachers be expected to act as therapists or spiritual gurus. Parents need to see through the rhetoric and the fog of whole child education.”

And finally, a personal example of SEL in action. Back in the early 2000s, before SEL was at the forefront, my son was in grade school. I remember him coming home excited to tell about Modigliani and the other artists he was hearing about in his art class. Art, he was learning, was about expression, and color, and trying different styles and mediums. Those were not concepts I heard listening to an elementary art teacher’s presentation at a recent school board meeting. Instead, she spoke of students learning to self-contain, to respect personal space, and how to think about the person sitting beside you. Are those the topics of most importance in an art class, a science class, or any other class? SEL is leaving no room for the beauty of a good education.

Parents are to have the strongest voice in shaping the moral fabric of their children. Schools, curriculum, methodology, ideology—none of it is to replace parenting.

Just when we thought public schools couldn’t get any worse, we are about to be hit with a total immersion of SEL and gender ideology.

What will it take for parents to pull their kids out of the public school system?

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