Angelica Ramos
Contributing Writer
MONTGOMERY COUNTY- The Montgomery County School Board voted May 7, 2024 to adopt a new addition to Montgomery County Public Schools’ Curriculum: the Social and Emotional Learning Curriculum.
Social and Emotional Learning, or SEL, is a research-based learning strategy that works to promote self awareness, social awareness, self management and more.
The Virginia Department of Education defines SEL as, “The process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships and make responsible and caring decisions.”
The SEL Adoption team consists of 49 members, where all 20 schools will be represented. At the elementary and middle school levels, the SEL company and resources will be from Move this World. For Montgomery County high schools, the company and resources will be from Ripple Effects. These programs contain professional learning and development for educators like classroom instruction support, interactive videos for real-world learning and self-directed learning, and community engagement learning and tools. The curriculum will change how the school day is structured in terms of period or block scheduling, but Montgomery County educators say they see a need for this new curriculum. The core values of the SEL curriculum were already things stated in the Montgomery County School Board’s Strategic Plan for the district and were highlighted as key focuses for the next six years.
“I believe any tool we can use to help our children understand themselves and those around them is valuable to the district,” Board Member Penny Franklin said, “Helping other students recognize and advocate for folks who may not be able to advocate for themselves, I think, is important and actually is something we ask our students to do: help support each other.”
“In my opinion,” Board Member Dr. Steven Rountree said, “teaching kids how to react to their feelings is a good thing. Teaching them that there are a variety of feelings is a good thing.”
“It might not fix everything,” Board Chair Linwood Hudson said, “but I see it as a positive step in a good direction.”
The adoption of Social and Emotional Learning curriculum was approved by vote with five for and two opposed.
