HB 1518: “The Summer Step-Up Act” re: Social Emotional Learning: Why are we experimenting on low income four-year old’s?
I took a deep dive into the realm of Social Emotional Learning recently and someone brought to my attention a House Bill that is in committee at the time of this writing. It is House Bill (HB) 1518 that was initially titled “Improving student achievement by promoting social emotional learning throughout the calendar year” but may be changed to “The Summer Step-Up Act”, a catchier title that masks what the bill is really about.
The reason I want to bring this bill to the attention of the public is that this piece of proposed legislation has the appearance of being the beginning of a concept that needs further study.
Public school education continually, by way of the whims of politicians and their donors and the whimsy of philanthropists, goes through upheavals on a regular basis and most of the time, common sense and lessons learned are left behind in the race to the next new bright and shiny silver bullet. Remember Bill Gates’ idea of galvanic wrist band monitors for students? Or the data walls in classrooms showing each student’s performance on tests in elementary school or remember IQ tests back in the day? The most recent big fails have been the No Child Left Behind Act and Race to the Top.
This is what I see with the idea of Social Emotional Learning. Not only is this the next HB 1518: “The Summer Step-Up Act” re: Social Emotional Learning: Why are we experimenting on low income four-year old’s? | Seattle Education:
