A recent set of survey questions distributed to elementary school students in the Addison Northwest School District (ANWSD) raises important questions about the new direction Vermont schools have quietly embarked upon in stewarding children.

The surveys, recently administered to third-graders, are titled “Panorama Social-Emotional Learning: Student Competency & Well Being Measures” and “Panorama Social-Emotional Learning: Student Supports & Environment.”

Parents have not provided a mandate to educators to undertake Social Emotional Learning (SEL). The recent survey highlights why legitimate concerns have emerged about its impact.

John Klar

Vermont’s public schools have dramatically and abruptly shifted to become progressive ideological conditioning centers. Critical race theory led the way and then school falsely said it was “not being taught.”

Vermont’s public schools are nearly the most expensive in the nation, and yet proficiency scores in core subjects have been steadily declining. More money and more political indoctrination — sexualizing, racializing, and genderizing kids — is detracting from instilling vital life skills, while increasing conflict, depression and anxiety.

Perhaps a pause in SEL — or consultation with parents — is warranted.

The organization contracted to implement these surveys is Panorama Education, which claims at its website that its goals are to “promote positive school climate by collecting valid and reliable feedback about what matters most — from belonging and teacher-student relationships to engagement and school safety.” It also aims to help educators collaboratively manage student intervention plans, and support the behavioral health of students and promote success in the learning process.

The behavioral health of Vermont students has never been worse — an opioid epidemic, school violence, gender confusion, sexual education beginning in kindergarten, and political indoctrination have all taken their toll.

Active shooter drills are clearly anxiety-causing for children, as is unscientific alarmism over the “existential urgency” of climate change. The politicization of children being transformed into political agents of change and “anti-racists” is causing the anxiety that is to be addressed through emotional and psychological partisan conditioning.

James Lindsay has raised the alarm about this surreptitious process:

Possibly the most important topic happening in education, at least if you care about the well-being, health, and safety of children and the future of this country, is “Social-Emotional Learning (SEL).” Social-Emotional Learning is the psychologizing of schooling, and, as one might expect, it comes in a variety of forms. The most contemporary and relevant form is the most Marxist form because the Marxist educators have completely hijacked any legitimacy the program ever had and turned it into a Maoist nightmare to ruin your kids so they can achieve their revolution. 

If this sounds extreme, let us “connect the dots” between ANWSD, Panorama, and the new order.

Panorama boasts that it “helps students achieve academic success and well-being, [and] has been named to the GSV 150, a list that represents the world’s most transformative private companies in education.”

However, the GSV 150 are selected based on profitability, using as criteria “revenue scale, revenue growth, user reach, geographic diversification, and margin profile.” The GSV 150 notes the massive venture capital investments of China into this technology, lauds the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence in its technology, and openly claims it seeks to implement a “brave new world”:

As we look toward the future, this rapidly changing landscape represents what we at GSV call a “Brave New World,” and you can’t use old maps to navigate a new world. At a time of both tremendous challenge and unprecedented innovation, digital learning and workforce skills companies have a unique opportunity to chart new maps that allow ALL people to have access to the future. … Most notably, companies are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to scale personalized learning and skills training for individuals and enterprises. The explosion of large language models and generative AI has ushered in a new era of AI in education.

This is what is behind the ANWSD’s surveys — profitability and control. The same site says so:

As we enter 2023, investor sentiment remains cautious, and we anticipate increased consolidation across the industry as companies with cash will be well-positioned to acquire targets unable to raise additional rounds at attractive valuations. ….North America — primarily the United States — is the most represented region, accounting for 60% of the GSV 150. 

More and more companies are extending their reach across the lifetime learning cycle, with 30% of the 150 expanding across multiple categories from Pre-K to Gray. ….The key criteria for inclusion are:….Companies experiencing strong top-line growth.

ANWSD is providing surveys to young children which are all about emotions and conditioning children away from their parents and culture. Only one question is repeated in both: “Do you identify as LGBTQIA+?”

Prioritizing gender identity in young children behind parents’ backs inculcates young minds into examining sexual behaviors before they are emotionally prepared—Vermont’s novel “comprehensive sex education” curriculum specifically seeks to do this, intervening between parents (and their values) and their own children. Children who claim they are of a different gender receive confidential protection from being outed to their parents. Some use different names at school than at home, and they all can receive counseling and gender hormone therapies without parental knowledge or consent—now ensconced in the Constitution in Proposal 5. There is no age floor on this conditioning; nor does there appear to be a ceiling on how far these extremists will go.

Other survey questions include:

• How carefully did you listen to other people’s points of view?
• How clearly were you able to describe your feelings?
• When others disagreed with you, how respectful were you of their views? 
• Do you have a teacher or other adult from school who you can count on to help you, no matter what? 
• How positive or negative is the energy at your school?

These student questions invite questions from parents in response:

• How carefully do school administrators weigh the impacts of these efforts?
• When parents disagree with them about unproven gender ideology, how respectful are school administrators toward their views?
• Are children respectfully allowed to believe there are only two genders?

And what does it mean to “find school administrators who will help them, no matter what?” Does this include helping them obtain experimental hormone blockers behind their parents’ backs? How about, as recently occurred in Randolph, helping kids obtain edible THC? What business does a school have to condition children in this fashion, when it is failing to teach them math or reading?

SEL has some big supporters: World Economic Forum, the World Bank, the UN, and Bill Gates.

But as James Lindsay warns,  “Social-Emotional Learning is evil and must be stopped. It isn’t a nice little program to help at-risk kids deal with the difficulties of learning. It’s the central pillar of a nefarious attempt to remake and control society. “

John Klar is an attorney and farmer residing in Brookfield. © Copyright True North Reports 2023. All rights reserved.