Playground Paganism:  The Seducing Spirit of Social-Emotional Learning

“Antidotes to Idolatry” – Part 2

By Dr. Jeffery J Ventrella

“SEL [social-emotional learning] is more than a process, a methodology, a curriculum – it is a way of life.”^[1]

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”^[2]

Culture today is awash with surveys.  Polls are taken about “how people feel” about this or that.  These methods are used for everything from promoting popcorn to politics.  Social media of course under the guise of “improvement” collects survey-generated information – and after analyzing it – sells it.^[3]  What you may not know is that the Centers for Disease Control^[4] and other State public health agencies,^[5] also craft surveys administered to young minor school students – not for treating these persons and their diseases or maladies, but to craft demographic profiles for justifying policy choices and agendas.  These efforts actually stem from pagan predicates; they flow from paganism’s “inward turn:” the rise – and rule – of the “emotional Self.”  Let’s get to the gist.

To denote something as being “pagan” is not a slur or insult.  Rather, the description accurately depicts the metaphysical worldview embraced – by default or by design – of those who reject biblical cosmology:  the Creator/Creation binary.  How so?

Upon exchanging the Truth for the Lie,^[6] God is no longer worshipped let alone transcendent.  No transcendent window is deemed to exist.  All that remains is immanent, however configured or conceptualized – it will remain immanent – yet something must function as transcendent.   If all that exists is immanent “stuff”; the immanent becomes the only source for meaning.   This means that every reference point lacks true transcendence – meaning, ethics and knowledge must be found only within the immanent frame.^[7]  Thus, that stuff must be mined in search of significance.  How so?  By turning inward, by “finding oneself” by “going within.”  This becomes the “new” transcendent referencing point.  Put differently, the locus of authority and knowing becomes the individual – man as the measure of all things.  With this move feelings and experience became normative, the standard, for action and ethics.  As the 1960’s mantra put it: “If it feels good, do it.”^[8]

The move to “go within” and fixating on one’s feelings has been done quite overtly and intentionally, especially during the so-called “New Age” which was anything but new.  The 1960’s in particular pressed for exploring “inner conscientiousness” often using new drugs like LSD or old drugs like Peyote and psilocybin.  And, in pragmatic America, this “inner game” was pitched – and monetized – to promote performance and superior competitiveness^[9] – and profit: Today, ingesting hallucinogens is used instrumentally to supposedly boost innovation and productivity, especially in Silicon Valley.^[10]  This “inner” approach, however travels well beyond sports performance or technology.  Bill Gates, commenting on Gallwey’s The Inner Game of Tennis^[11], claims it’s really a totalistic worldview:

“Groundbreaking . . . the best guide to getting out of your own way . . . Its profound advice applies to many other parts of life.”^[12]

The Christian worldview contrasts with this idea.  While the Greeks taught “seeing is believing,” Augustine countered by asserting that “believing is seeing.”^[13]  What then is the structure of real reality, if “going within” and fixating on feelings comprises a false path?

Christianity begins not with stuff or man (or his feelings/desires), but rather with the Holy Creator God.  “Holiness” denotes two things: (1) moral perfection, but more prominently; (2) being separate, distinct, or set apart.  In real reality there is a metaphysical distinction between God – who is Holy – and the Cosmos.  That distinction cannot be bridged except on God’s terms:  The Incarnation (God becoming man) and grace applied by the Holy Spirit, the mystery of the Faith:  God in Christ and Man in Christ.

God is the Creator and as such He is never not relevant.    He is also God the lawgiver who providentially governs all things.  He is the “law above the law.”   This all means first of all that reality is immutably objective, not merely the result of ephemeral feelings, desires, or impressions.  A sure standard exists and it necessarily exists outside of the Creation.  As C.S. Lewis once put it (somewhere):  a yardstick cannot measure itself.  A transcendent objective outside standard must exist outside the yardstick that applies to the yardstick.

Second, this means that while technical and scientific expertise are valuable, they are not ultimate.  Their conclusions are reliable and true only when they correspond to reality.  This is particularly true when dealing with health and medical matters. Something may reflect the “scientific and medical consensus” and remain vilely evil.  Recall that “eugenics” formed the basis of Progressive policy initiatives leading to the forced yet legal sterilization of thousands of Americans.^[14]  Lobotomies in the same vein were preferred methods of treating mental illnesses.^[15] “Trusting the science” did not produce morally reliable outcomes. 

Third, this also means that truth is not subject to majority vote.  The vox populi – the voice of the People (or their feelings) – can also be deeply mistaken.  For example, “the People” legally established chattel slavery and the slave trade.  Then following Emancipation, “the People” of the South legally imposed and enforced ungodly Jim Crow provisions.  And, today following the overturning of Roe v. Wade “the People” of several states nevertheless legalized the killing of innocent life via abortion.  Going within and relying on the sentiments of “the People” produces arbitrary, unstable, and often unjust societal outcomes.  In the same way, relying on human feelings and desires will do no better, especially when it comes to mental health outcomes.

Consequences of Turning Inward:  Subjectivism as Normative

Subjectivism in Principle

Paganism, by structural necessity due to its rejection of a law above the law, makes Man the measure of all things. Why?  Without a knowable and true transcendent norm, what functions as a norm is immanent, no matter how dressed it may be.  By rejecting hierarchies as “oppressive,” paganism necessarily becomes autonomous, or self-law.  This is a recipe for rampant relativism.  Decisions are therefore not made because they are right and true, but because someone or some institution imposes them by power.  Might makes right in every relativistic situation.  Why?  Because the decision seemed right in their own eyes.^[16]

How does this work out in everyday life?  We see evidence of this subjective turn throughout our culture.  The “therapeutic mindset”^[17] traces solutions to fulfilling a person’s desires, “getting in touch with your feelings,” endless menus sprout filled with options to “fit our desires” and “make us happy.”  We even market “Happy Meals” and describe our “happy place.”^[18] We spend billions on “self-care”^[19] and wellness regimens – and yet increasingly consume antidepressants at astronomical levels.^[20]   We multiply choices, thinking that this will satisfy our feelings – and yet happiness is evidently illusive, ephemeral, and depleting culturally.^[21]  Perhaps, acting to placate and satisfy feelings constitutes the wrong approach to life.  Consider Satan’s tactics.

Satan appealed to base inner appetites in tempting Jesus – plying Him with the promise of fulfilling feelings and desires.  He first focused on physical urges due to hunger:

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,

      “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”^[22]

Pivoting from “mere” physical needs, the Adversary focused on tempting Christ to meet His psychological “needs” concerning “identity”:

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.^[23]

He then appealed to the inner craving to possess expansive political power:^[24]

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

      “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.^[25]

Faced with these temptations, temptations appealing to feelings, Jesus did not opt to fulfill His desires or feelings.  His feelings did not dictate His course of action.  Instead, He responded by appealing to a true transcendent standard:  the very Word of God.  

What happens when the “inward turn” becomes institutionalized and is positioned with an important sounding label?  Welcome to “Social-Emotional Learning,” and its pagan agenda.

Social-Emotional Learning:  The Paganized Playground

Consider the rise in reported “anxiety” in young people.^[26]  What’s the source of this reporting?  In many cases it’s public school teachers, especially in California.  Rather than training teachers to better know their subject matter and well, teach it, thousands of dollars are now spent fostering “emotional check-ins,” “Mindfulness Minutes,” and “trauma-informed education” with students.^[27]

So, what exactly comprises “social-emotional learning” or SEL?  SEL is a totalistic “way of life”.^[28]  One version, used in – surprise, surprise – California sets forth Neo-Marxist aka Critical Theory aims: 

“Transformative SEL is a form of SEL aimed at redistributing power to promote social justice through increased engagement in school and civil life.”^[29]

In other words, SEL is a worldview that seeks to impact – and transform – all of reality – starting with public school children.  The premise of SEL is that every child suffers from serious trauma experiences.^[30]  This means that students spend time not learning math^[31], but instead their teachers:

Invite students to marinate in a time when they were sad, scared, or vulnerable.^[32]

One popular SEL curricula asks 8^th graders to divulge – publicly:

• Have you ever stayed overnight in a hospital?^[33]
• Has someone close to you died?

• Have you ever lost a championship game or important competition?

• Do you attend religious services?^[34]

• Have you ever worried about the safety of a loved one?^[35]

• Have you ever been really embarrassed?

• Have you ever changed schools?

• Have you ever been teased?^[36]

These generalized prompts may resemble horoscopes, yet in each case undermine parental authority and student privacy.  Because SEL presupposes that deep trauma is normal, the goal here is to unearth deep feelings associated with that supposed trauma – guided by elementary and junior high school teachers who lack professional training, let alone credentialing in these mental health fields.  And worse, many states proscribe disclosing what’s been revealed by students to their parents, including whether the teacher subsequently directed the student to mental health care based on these SEL group therapy sessions.^[37]

These phenomena reflect an increasingly consistent pagan ethos becoming assimilated into the culture.  This should not surprise the biblically literate.  The apostle Paul warns us that after unrighteous practices surface, they push for affirmation and approval, supplanting righteousness:  

they not only continue to do these very things [unrighteous practices] but also approve of those who practice them.^[38]

How should we respond?  How then shall we live?  Join TxC for its next Symposium, Every Square Inch, August 30, 31 in Pasadena, CA – where leading scholars will provide biblical solutions as we “take every thought captive to obey Christ.”^[39]

^[1] “Social Emotional Learning” Stevenson High School [Illinois], http://www.d125.org/about/

^[2] Jesus, John 14:6

^[3] “If You Are Not Paying, You Are the Product”:  What Social Media Firms Do With Your Data,https://vulcanpost.com/715788/how-social-media-firms-use-your-data/#:~:text=These%20companies%20collect%20and%20scrutinise,be%20used%20for%20commercial%20purposes.

^[4] See, e.g., 2021 Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey, https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/2021/2021-YRBS-Standard-MS-Questionnaire.pdf; see also, the 2023 version, https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/2023/2023_yrbs_standard_ms_questionnaire.pdf

^[5] See, Parents Defending Education, a non-profit organization that complies intrusions on parental authority under the guise of health and education.  https://defendinged.org/about/

^[6] Romans 1:25

^[7] See generally, Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (2007), and also, James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to be Secular:  Reading Charles Taylor (2014)

^[8] Psychologist Gerald Jampolsky capitalized upon and further popularized this phrase in his 1979 book, Love is Letting Go of Fear (1979).

^[9] One early manifestation of “going within” applied to performance focused on sports:  W. Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Tennis – 50^th Anniversary Edition (2024)

^[10] Magic Mushrooms.  LSD.  Ketamine.  The Drugs that Power Silicon Valley, Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/silicon-valley-microdosing-ketamine-lsd-magic-mushrooms-d381e214

 And, also, How Silicon Valley Rediscovered LSD, Financial Times, August 16, 2017, https://www.ft.com/content/0a5a4404-7c8e-11e7-ab01-a13271d1ee9c

^[11] See note 9, supra.

^[12] Bill Gates, excerpted from GatesNotes (Five of My All-Time Favorite Books), https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Tennis-50th-Anniversary/dp/0593732030/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

^[13] “In your light do we see light.”  (Ps. 36:9b)

^[14] See Jeffrey S. Sutton, 51 Imperfect Solutions:  States and the Making of American Constitutional Law (2018), which discusses the legal issues leading to the notorious Supreme Court ruling in Buck v Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927) that affirmed this forced and involuntary sterilization practice reasoning: “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Buck, 274 U.S. at 207.

^[15] See, e.g., Andrew Scull, A Brief and Awful History of the Lobotomy – Groundbreaking Discoveries . . .But at What Cost?  https://lithub.com/a-brief-and-awful-history-of-the-lobotomy/

^[16] Prov. 21:2; Judges 21:25

^[17] See, e.g., Albert Mohler, Moral Therapeutic Deism—The New American Religion (2005),https://albertmohler.com/2005/04/11/moralistic-therapeutic-deism-the-new-american-religion-2/

And more recently, Abigail Shrier, Bad Therapy:  Why The Kids Aren’t Growing Up (2024)

^[18] Psychology unsurprisingly validates this therapeutic approach. See, e.g., Shawn M. Burn, writing recently in Psychology Today – “Your Happy Place,” https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/presence-mind/202209/your-happy-place

^[19] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1052519/us-consumer-spending-personal-care-services/, Feeling Good:  The future of the $1.5 Trillion wellness market, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/feeling-good-the-future-of-the-1-5-trillion-wellness-market

^[20] Note the increased use of this class of drugs from just Medicaid programs:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10750172/

^[21] The United State slid from 15^th in the world to 23^rd – https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/20/1239537074/u-s-drops-in-new-global-happiness-ranking-one-age-group-bucks-the-trend

This of course presumes the validity of (1) actually being able to effectively measure happiness; and (2) if so, whether it matters, that is, it coheres with a Christian view of anthropology.  Forbes, Turns Out We Really Don’t Know How to Measure Happiness, https://www.forbes.com/sites/mishagajewski/2020/12/09/turns-out-we-dont-really-know-how-to-measure-happiness/?sh=71892f205fdd

And also:   Face Facts:  The Sad Truth About Measuring Happiness (2022), https://business.purdue.edu/news/features/?research=5632

^[22] Matt. 4:1-4

^[23] Matt. 4:5-8

^[24] This is a current sad turn in Christian political theology as the New Right is now explicitly rejecting Classical Liberalism in favor of grabbing political power and imposing “Christian Nationalism” for the “common good.”  For calm, yet cogent critiques see P. Andrew Sandlin, Editor, Virtuous Liberty-A Christian Defense of Classical Liberalism and the Free Society Against Cultural Leftism and the New Right (2023) and Kevin Vallier, All the Kingdoms of the World:  On Radical Religious Alternatives to Liberalism (2023)

^[25] Matt. 4:8-11

^[26] See, Sophie Bethune, “Gen Z More Likely to Report Mental Health Concerns”, https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/01/gen-z

^[27] Abigail Shrier describes these efforts in Bad Therapy:  Why The Kids Aren’t Growing Up (2024), 69-88

^[28] “SEL is more than a process, a methodology, a curriculum – it is a way of life.”  “Social Emotional Learning” Stevenson High School [Illinois], http://www.d125.org/about/

^[29] Sonoma County Office of Education, http//www.scoe.org/pub/htdocs/transformative-social-emotional-learning.html.

^[30] Shrier, at 76.

^[31] Yes, SEL advocates claim it even applies to math as one enthusiast chirped: “I can’t think of a content area that needs more social-emotional learning than mathematics.”  Cited by Shrier at 82.  Shrier relates attending a presentation entitled “Embedding SEL in Math.”  It began by soliciting – you guessed it—the attendees’ feelings about math.  Id. at 83.  Do math facts actually care about feelings?

^[32] Shrier, at 81

^[33] Consider whether this violates HIPPA regulations.

^[34] A big trauma-inducing bogyman according to the public education lobby is organized “oppressive” “patriarchal” “superstitious” religion.

^[35] The idea here seems to be probing whether the home is a “dangerous” environment – ratting on parental disciplinary choices.

^[36] The focus here seeks data relating to what the Left would consider “bullying,“ particularly of those pushed to identify as LGBTQ 

^[37] In California, Illinois, Washington, Colorado, Florida, and Maryland, minors 12 and 13 can be channeled to school-sponsored mental health providers without parental permission or even notification.  Shirer, at 75.

^[38] Romans 1:32

^[39] 2 Cor. 10:5