Anyone reading local social media lately has likely run across a number of posts and comments about HSE Schools.
First, a group calling themselves “Fishers One” is organizing and posting online, first about the school board’s process for selecting the new HSE School Superintendent. Other posts from the group have been critical of the SEL (social, emotional learning) program at HSE Schools and SEEL at the high school level (social emotional equity learning).
Another group has emerged online taking the opposite view, with the name of “One Fishers.”
As you can see, you need a scorecard to keep track of the players.
In his weekly video update, HSE Superintendent Allen Bourff addresses what he describes as “some of the misconceptions that have recently circulated online regarding the district’s social, emotional, learning (SEL), as well as the equity & inclusion work.”
Bourff describes SEL as a way to promote students’ life skills, needed for the work place, college or military service. To Dr. Bourff, SEL includes conflict resolution, time management, communication, empathy and self awareness.
This is nothing new to public schools, according to Dr. Bourff. “School’s have fostered students’ social, emotional development for years,” the superintendent said. “It’s been known as character development, sportsmanship or citizenship.”
He describes the SEL program in grades kindergarten through 8th grade as a research based program used by other Indiana school districts.
All the SEL lessons are available on the school district Web site using this link.
This is the first year high schools will be piloting SEEL content. Each high school will take a slightly different approach to this “We call it SEEL because in High Schools our equity coaches have partnered with the SEL coordinators to develop the content,” said Bourff.
Dr. Bourff then turned his attention to assertions HSE Schools are promoting Critical Race Theory in SEL and curriculum, saying this is not happening in the district, “it is not true.”
“Equity & inclusion work has been embedded in our district since 2004,” said Dr. Bourff in the video. “The district considers its responsibility to create a safe space where students can grow academically and socially. We work together as central office administrators, principals, counselors and teachers to prepare students for the future that awaits them. It’s a collaborative effort.”
Dr. Bourff’s entire video posted Friday afternoon can be viewed at this link.
As the founder of One Fishers, it didn’t form to take the “opposite view” – it formed to support equity and inclusion in Fishers. I’ll let the other group decide for themselves if that’s the “opposite” of their view.
Jaime, you are entitled to describe your organization any way you wish, and you have done so here. As an independent observer, it is a bit hard to ignore that your group was named “One Fishers” just days after “Fishers One” was announced, taking positions that appear to be the opposite of views expressed by “Fishers One.”
Critical Race Theory is not the sort of thing that admits of easy definition, since there are lots of scholars who work on it and they disagree with each other about the details. But some of the themes are that racism is pervasive in American society, that it is ingrained in each individual in a way that may be unconscious, and that past efforts to achieve a “colorblind” society committed to open inquiry and freedom of speech are misguided and ultimately harmful to blacks. Sometimes it also includes ideas about “social construction” according to which racial and historical ideas and narratives are constructed by dominant groups to serve their own interests. (All of this comes from the very widely cited *Introduction to Critical Race Theory* by Stefanic and Delgado.)
It seems pretty obvious to me that at least several of these ideas are becoming a new unquestioned orthodoxy among our school administrators and other fans of “equity” (i.e. guaranteed equality of outcome). If I’m right about that, Dr. Bourff’s claim that they aren’t going to teach CRT is likely not accurate. If I’m wrong, I’d love to hear which of the above ideas Dr. Bourff thinks should not be taught.
For my part, unlike CRT, I value open inquiry and so I’m fine with these ideas being presented at the high school level, so long as they are presented as the controversial ideas that they are. I’m unfortunately pessimistic about a commitment to open inquiry in our high schools, and I’m very concerned about an approach that attempts to indoctrinate kids rather than charitably presenting the ideas, presenting the rational opposition to them, and teaching the kids to think for themselves.
As a teacher in junior high, I can say that CRT is not being taught below the high school level. With that being said, the junior high kids dread SEL and groan every time I start to introduce the weekly lesson. Most young teens do not want to talk about the content and many of them are not old enough to have generated their only opinions, feelings, and at these key years in life, they certainly do not want to share and make themselves stand out. SEL lessons in my class require me to be a dentist pulling teeth to get kids to participate. I do what I have to do to complete the required lesson. Everyone is glad when it is done. I realize some of the good of SEL is not being taught at home. With that being said, HSE has fallen from what it was once teaching subject related curriculum at a high level. These days, I get kids from the elementary and intermediate that have not been taught basic skills, computation, grammar , ect that they will need in life. HSE needs to refocus its classroom teachers to focusing on teach core skills and not driving Spheros, coding and doing SEL. HSE students are falling behind. If the state requires SEL as I often see stated even though I have friends that teach in other districts with no SEL, please move it to the Wellness classrooms where it fits better. English and Math teachers need to be focusing all of their time on their core subject area and not these SEL lesson that no jr high kid wants any part of.