Priscilla West (Encounter, $12.95, 62 pages)
If you think the war on woke is winning, especially in education, as some excesses are reversed, you must read The New Face of Woke Education. Priscilla West illustrates how Social Emotional Learning is rampant throughout schools, “weaponiz(ing) empathy, using emotional appeals to smuggle radical ideology into classrooms under colorful banners of compassion.” West exposes an entire private-sector industry that works with schools, including private and charter schools, to use SEL to create young social justice warriors. Worst yet, computer software allows school-aged children to be tracked digitally over time, and some states use metrics established by these companies to enact policy to improve student “well-being.” From self-reflection exercises and emotional check-ins to breathing exercises and SEL presentations, these novel pedological practices are designed to push students politically leftward. What makes SEL so pernicious is that educators, politicians, and parents are lulled by such innocuous or even benign-sounding ideas such as managing emotions, making responsible decisions, and establishing positive relationships. The essential element of all this is not teacher training or even curriculum, although these are indeed problems, but the classroom software that effectively surveils children. Tech giants such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft’s Bill Gates fund SEL resources and, in West’s words, “weaponizes education against American and family values.” The global SEL market is estimated to be worth $9 billion globally, with “the largest SEL platforms handling the personal information of tens of millions of children” while creating a “web of subtle ideological programming with the apparent intent to psychologically manage children.” Parents need to push back and West’s The New Face of Woke Education will provide them the tools to identify buzz words and programs that turn students into commodities to be exploited by corporations and radicals.
