Louise! My reaction to your co-sponsorship of Bill HB 1473 is: No social-emotional learning in schools? No relationships, mentoring, civic engagement? Where did you get this?!

Have you not seen what happened to kids of all ages during the COVID-19 pandemic? Not only did they lose valuable academic skills and time, they also lost the socializing inherent in schools. They lost emotional guidance. They lost friendships. Young kids came into early elementary with no sense of group civility, how to behave as a team.

Kids learn intellectually and emotionally from each other and use guidance from adults in school settings to nudge them in safe and healthy directions. I was an educator for over 40 years and believe wholeheartedly in the efficacy and common sense of reaching and guiding the whole child.

This is where they learn to become engaged members of the community. Don’t you participate in a civic fashion?

Parents cannot do it all; too many families have two working parents. Kids need each other in community settings with trained, caring, and civically responsible adults.

I believe very strongly that your bill would destroy that. Come to your senses!

Janet Moore
Andover
Lifelong educator, mother of 3, active community volunteer