A woman picked to sit in on Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy‘s staged town-hall styled rollout of the House GOP’s latest “Commitment to America,” complained to the California lawmaker that a “new” program, “social emotional learning,” which teaches children to have greater self esteem, and be aware of their emotions and those of others, is “Marxist.”
Social Emotional Learning, or “SEL,” is not new, it was developed starting in the 1960s at the Yale University School of Medicine.
But according to the woman chosen to help McCarthy introduce what he admits is the GOP’s “plan” to win back the House, SEL is just the next big “concern,” after “CRT.” Critical Race Theory has been used by far-right wing extremists to delegitimize that systemic racism exists in America.
“There are many other public education issues, concerning parents like myself,” the woman, reading from a script, tells McCarthy, who is seated among an almost entirely white audience in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.
The woman identified herself as Lori McRoberts “a mama bear,” who says she has three children, ages 19, 17, and 14.
In her remarks she also complained about “abusive COVID protocols, or mandates,” in schools, “or what they called the ‘health and safety plan,'” she said, reading from her typewritten remarks. She described lunchtime for students as sitting like “prisoners,” while mocking the fact that COVID is airborne, can be spread via talking, and those infected can be asymptomatic. She also described signs in schools urging children and teachers to “mask up for safety,” as “propaganda,” while lamenting that parents were not given decision-making abilities for COVID policies, neglecting to note they should be science-based, while expressing anger the protocols came from guidelines published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
After several minutes she got to the part where she blasted social learning programs.
“The slow creep of critical race theory,” she said, reading off her list of concerns, as her voice became angered, “diversity, equity, and inclusion, gender identity, and allowing biological boys to enter girls spaces in sports.”
“Now we have SEL,” she lamented, “which is ‘social-emotional learning,'” she said with disdain. “It’s indoctrination disguised as programs, like ‘kindness initiatives,’ or anti-bullying programs, or diversity projects.”
“These are all Marxist-style programs, targeting our children,” she claimed.
The Pittsburg, Pennsylvania public schools’ website says: “We all know that it is essential for children to master important academic skills, such as reading and mathematics. That’s why they go to school. But it is equally important for students to develop the ‘soft skills’ that we all need to navigate the world successfully. These include things like how to manage their own feelings and emotions, how to respect others and how to build strong, positive relationships. This is called Social-Emotional Learning (SEL).”
McRoberts continued her pre-written rant.
“Then, to make it all better, the current administration weaponized the Dept. of Justice,” she claimed, “and all the parents speaking up at school board meetings or challenging any of these programs, like I was, was now labeled a ‘domestic terrorist,'” she said, which is false.
“Our Dept. of Justice is calling me, a mom, a domestic terrorist,” she claimed, again, falsely.
After her lengthy and angry remarks, she asked how the Republican Party will “protect our children from the radical agenda of the left?”
After she spoke, to applause from the audience, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, seated directly behind Congressman McCarthy, looked at McRoberts knowingly, repeatedly mouthing, “good job, good job.”
McCarthy responded to McRoberts, agreeing that DOJ had called parents “domestic terrorists,” which he knows is false, after The Washington Post and others have called him out on it for months.
Watch McRobert’s remarks on SEL, and the full town hall staged presentation, below or at this link.