Students Speak Out About SEL at Board Meeting
Three seniors hope to create change by bringing attention to dissatisfaction.
By Abigail Shlimenzon
Three seniors hope to create change by bringing attention to dissatisfaction.
By Abigail Shlimenzon
On Nov. 17 multiple seniors from Pioneer including Luciana Fernandini, Devan Dauenhauer and Sophia Smolinski, attended a SJUSD Board Meeting to voice their concerns about Social Emotional Learning.
During the meeting each student focused on separate topics to ensure that all of the student body’s complaints were heard by those in power.
“I focused on the negative side effects that some lessons were having, like the one about school shootings and another one about how to deal with death, because it made kids feel really uncomfortable. I talked about how one of the teachers had to email another teacher to not show the lesson at all because it was so bad,” said Dauenhauer.
Although SEL was implemented in schools as an effort to improve and help create a safe space for students to work on their mental health, many students and teachers feel that it has had adverse effects.
“I feel like it's not helpful at all and it's just a waste of our class time. Most of the time, it's teaching us things that are negatively affecting us,” said Sofia Brewe-Garcia, 12. “The way it was teaching us toxic positivity was really bad.”
Some teachers, like English teacher Michelle Bowman, have also noticed the negative effects of SEL.
“I think what was important is that the students have an opinion about SEL because it was just quite foisted on us without having really any input or feedback from teachers or students. And it's a program that doesn't work,” said Bowman.
In preparation for the meeting, a survey was created that many students in the student body filled out.
“The survey collected everyone’s opinion on SEL and how students saw the program as negative. The survey was used to tell the students’ opinion on SEL and the result was that there were very few positive comments on the program. This survey showed us that the general student opinion is that SEL needs to be reconstructed to be more attentive to the actual needs of students,” said Smolinski.
The survey allowed students to share their experiences and opinions on SEL, so that those who went to the meeting were able to show the board members. In the survey, Kenzie Hill, 12, shared her negative experiences with SEL.
“For example the lesson with the little kid who had lost both of his parents being summed up to ‘be grateful, your life isn’t that hard!’ me and several other students who had lost parents had to step out of the room because it was so infuriating,” said Hill.
Students hope that the district will take action and create change surrounding the program.
“I hope that we either don’t have SEL or that we will get a modified version that is more helpful. I think it’s just a waste of everyone’s time right now, and I think it would be better if it was optional so that students who wanted it could get it, but not everyone was forced to do it,” said Brewe-Garcia.
Despite the complaints being ignored since the beginning of the program, the students who attended the meeting felt like their complaints were listened to by some.
“I feel like there are some people that were really interested in what we had to say,” said Dauenhauer. “I think one big part of it was the fact that we were all students, they are all really interested in that. So I think the fact that we were students coming in and talking about SEL made an impact.”
During the meeting each student focused on separate topics to ensure that all of the student body’s complaints were heard by those in power.
“I focused on the negative side effects that some lessons were having, like the one about school shootings and another one about how to deal with death, because it made kids feel really uncomfortable. I talked about how one of the teachers had to email another teacher to not show the lesson at all because it was so bad,” said Dauenhauer.
Although SEL was implemented in schools as an effort to improve and help create a safe space for students to work on their mental health, many students and teachers feel that it has had adverse effects.
“I feel like it's not helpful at all and it's just a waste of our class time. Most of the time, it's teaching us things that are negatively affecting us,” said Sofia Brewe-Garcia, 12. “The way it was teaching us toxic positivity was really bad.”
Some teachers, like English teacher Michelle Bowman, have also noticed the negative effects of SEL.
“I think what was important is that the students have an opinion about SEL because it was just quite foisted on us without having really any input or feedback from teachers or students. And it's a program that doesn't work,” said Bowman.
In preparation for the meeting, a survey was created that many students in the student body filled out.
“The survey collected everyone’s opinion on SEL and how students saw the program as negative. The survey was used to tell the students’ opinion on SEL and the result was that there were very few positive comments on the program. This survey showed us that the general student opinion is that SEL needs to be reconstructed to be more attentive to the actual needs of students,” said Smolinski.
The survey allowed students to share their experiences and opinions on SEL, so that those who went to the meeting were able to show the board members. In the survey, Kenzie Hill, 12, shared her negative experiences with SEL.
“For example the lesson with the little kid who had lost both of his parents being summed up to ‘be grateful, your life isn’t that hard!’ me and several other students who had lost parents had to step out of the room because it was so infuriating,” said Hill.
Students hope that the district will take action and create change surrounding the program.
“I hope that we either don’t have SEL or that we will get a modified version that is more helpful. I think it’s just a waste of everyone’s time right now, and I think it would be better if it was optional so that students who wanted it could get it, but not everyone was forced to do it,” said Brewe-Garcia.
Despite the complaints being ignored since the beginning of the program, the students who attended the meeting felt like their complaints were listened to by some.
“I feel like there are some people that were really interested in what we had to say,” said Dauenhauer. “I think one big part of it was the fact that we were all students, they are all really interested in that. So I think the fact that we were students coming in and talking about SEL made an impact.”