Missouri Schools Could Soon Have Standards for Social-Emotional Education

(MissouriNet) Missouri could soon have standards for K-12 social-emotional education. The state Board of Education plans to vote today (Tuesday) on proposed standards that are designed to help students develop interpersonal skills for relationships, school, and the future workplace. State Representative Brad Pollitt, a former superintendent from west-central Missouri’s Sedalia, says for many years schools have been in the business of raising some young people because of an increase in single-parent families.

“What is the responsibility of the local public school,” asks Pollitt. “Is it only to teach reading and writing and math and science and history or is it to teach other skills? You know, there’s a lot of life skills, soft skills, that are taught through co-curricular and extracurricular activities.”

A department survey with 18 hundred comments shows most respondents support the proposed standards. But there’s a crowd pushing back on these standards, with some of the opposing arguments saying teachers would be practicing psychology without a license.