Last week was National SEL Week (plus International SEL day). Schools across the country celebrated with themed dress days, mindfulness minutes, and feelings check-ins. I didn’t celebrate because, for gifted kids, the SEL movement has become part of the problem.
My various online associates have been valiantly arguing against SEL for a variety of reasons – for instance,
SEL programs are massively expensive and unproven to improve either academic and SEL outcomes
!
But specifically the gifted ed community has its own big SEL issue: generic SEL measures are no substitute for actually challenging bright kids. (Neither are the esoteric ones!) Unproven educational bells and whistles should come last in the collective effort to help top students reach their potential – not first.
Gifted Education Harbors SEL On Steroids
Gifted ed circles have developed their own cottage industry around social-emotional concerns: overexcitabilities, asynchronous development, perfectionism, existential depression, twice-exceptionalities, multipotentiality, masking, gifted burnout…