Is Social and Emotional Learning “Bad Therapy”?

Education Next

Lean Right

Mixed Factuality

Is Social and Emotional Learning “Bad Therapy”?

Abigail Shrier’s wildly popular new book, Bad Therapy, is one of the latest takes on the causes of the mental health crisis occurring among youth. Shrier’s diagnosis is that society’s obsession over kids’ feelings undermines their development, hindering their ability to manage the vicissitudes of life. This problem, she says, is largely due to contemporary approaches to psychotherapy, parenting, and schooling. One of the schooling practices she …