Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Starr's "Social Emotional" isn't a Curriculum, it's a Mindset



This comment that we received sums up Superintendent Starr's response perfectly:

So no longer 'social emotional LEARNING' [insert multiple @mcpssuper tweets here calling it 'SEL'], but "competency development, not a curriculum" [timestamp 0:52] because development is different from learning, as in professional development (PD) which is training, not learning b/c there are PD courses part of a PD curriculum - or not. AND -not OR- social emotional [fill in the blank] is a 'mindset', an attitude that come from within, and not learned; "you can't force it" [timestamp 1:13], but you can force other types of development, er,learning, er training -except when it's not? Is that different from social emotional tricks which are presumably learned, as in "a trick in your repertoire, not a curriculum" [timestamp 1:42]? Are those tricks learned from individual courses part of PD curriculum/not curriculum, or are the tricks a mindset. I get so confused...

6 comments:

  1. So no longer 'social emotional LEARNING' [insert multiple @mcpssuper tweets here calling it 'SEL'], but "competency development, not a curriculum" [timestamp 0:52] because development is different from learning, as in professional development (PD) which is training, not learning b/c there are PD courses part of a PD curriculum - or not. AND -not OR- social emotional [fill in the blank] is a 'mindset', an attitude that come from within, and not learned; "you can't force it" [timestamp 1:13], but you can force other types of development, er,learning, er training -except when it's not? Is that different from social emotional tricks which are presumably learned, as in "a trick in your repertoire, not a curriculum" [timestamp 1:42]? Are those tricks learned from individual courses part of PD curriculum/not curriculum, or are the tricks a mindset. I get so confused...

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    Replies
    1. Bravo- you've got what it takes to be a superintendent.

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    2. Including beginning most statements with the word "So" ....

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  2. WTF??? This is very dangerous. Trust me, you DON’T want MCPS doing anything in the “social emotional” area, because they will f#%* it up. This is made even more dangerous with Starr’s ‘anything goes,’ “every school to have an approach that works for them” philosophy. Bottom line: We’re dealing with this right now in a big way. MCPS tried using “social emotional” BS to justify a wrongful placement and even worse wrongful coding for our child. For example, when our child went to the school counselor to report actual bullying, the school counselor said, “Oh I see, you must therefore have few if any friends. We need to put you in a self-contained program to develop your social emotional skills and not focus so much on academics.” Given that our child has NO behavior problems and is an excellent student with great grades, this makes no sense and would permanently label our child with an invalid coding. Maybe MCPS could come back to what must be defined as its primary function… to teach our child reading, writing, mathematics, etc. (not the 60% - 80% failure rates on final exams just reported). Starr’s the one who needs “social emotional” learning NOT our children.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't tell whether these musings are taken from the movie _Being There_ or _1984_.

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    2. More like "THX 1138"

      Delete

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