Teachers Stand By Social-Emotional Learning Despite Attacks

Teachers believe in teaching kids kindness, and they're not backing down.

Despite social-emotional learning becoming a political flashpoint over the past four years, educators' support for teaching students empathy, cooperation, and emotional management has remained remarkably steady. According to surveys by the EdWeek Research Center tracking opinions from 2022 through early 2026, about half of teachers consistently rate SEL's effects on students as positive.

The stability is striking given the context. Around 2022, some conservative activists swept SEL into broader debates about diversity and critical race theory, claiming these programs amounted to liberal indoctrination. Some schools even stopped using the term "SEL" publicly, though many quietly continued the practices.

But the attacks didn't work. Teachers, principals, and district leaders kept their views largely unchanged through three separate surveys.

"You wouldn't necessarily know that this was a big culture war flashpoint by looking at these survey results," said Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The data suggests the heated debates happening in policy circles may have been overblown compared to what's actually happening in classrooms.

Most educators view SEL as one helpful strategy among many rather than a magic solution. Fewer than one in three see it as transformational, but very few consider it a threat to public education or a passing fad.

The surveys did show educators have realistic expectations. About a quarter acknowledge SEL hasn't had much impact in their schools, with that sentiment peaking in 2024. Jerome Graham, an assistant professor at Michigan State University, notes that many initiatives lose steam after a few years as resources dry up and district attention shifts.

But research consistently shows that when implemented well, with proper support for teachers' own social-emotional skills and positive school culture, SEL programs deliver real benefits to students academically and socially.

Why This Inspires

In an era when educators face intense scrutiny and political pressure over curriculum choices, their steady commitment to teaching the whole child shows remarkable resilience. Teachers didn't abandon what they know helps kids just because it became controversial. They kept showing up, kept teaching empathy alongside math, and kept believing students need more than test scores to thrive.

The consistency in these numbers tells a quieter, more powerful story than any heated school board meeting: educators trust their own experience in the classroom over political noise.