Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Education
 
Board
State Board of Education
 
Guidance Document Change: The 2020 Virginia General Assembly passed House Bill 753 directing the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) to develop guidance standards for social emotional learning (SEL) for all public students in grades Kindergarten through 12 in the Commonwealth. The Virginia Social Emotional Learning Standards were developed in collaboration with an SEL Advisory Committee, composed of educators, community leaders, agency personnel, and parents. The Virginia SEL Standards are aligned with the Profile of a Virginia Graduate and centered in equity. This intentional focus allows the Standards to explicitly teach the skills needed to be “life ready” and to create more equitable learning environments.
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5/19/21  2:59 pm
Commenter: Concerned Parent

Strategies are not age appropriate
 

The competency developers ought to spend more time with children. A kindergartner is not equipped to "identify and value similarities and differences in cultures, traditions and beliefs." Children have a reductionist understanding of culture. Asking them to compare cultures and beliefs that they do not yet understand is not only ridiculous, it is reckless. While I support teaching active listening to children, it is unrealistic to expect a five year old to grasp a concept that evades adults.  At best, teachers might teach children to memorize and recall indicators of active listening, which has limited value. Last I checked "courage and perseverance" were not among the words typically taught in kindergarten. Structuring a competency with unfamiliar words underscores the benchmark's inappropriateness. Virginia can do better than this.

CommentID: 98593