Lost Education Time & Resources
Scheduling & Class Designation
We have received many reports detailing several different issues arising from schools trying to accommodate the scheduling of Lifewise. In many districts children as young as first grade are being sent to uninstructed study halls. In other districts children whose parents have opted them out are getting a “non-core” or “specials” class twice a week while their peers leave the classroom and go offsite for Lifewise. The glaring problem with this model is that there is no new instruction during these second classes each week that the Lifewise children miss. It creates so much extra work for our teachers, who are forced to come up with busy work for the students who stay, and to ensure the children leaving are not having to “make up” work (as regulations require) because they haven’t missed any of the lesson plan while attending RTRI.
SEL Standards
Although SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) is part of Lifewise’s sales pitch when being peddled to schools and parents, behind closed doors it is a very different story. They subscribe to the anti-SEL campaign led by conservative parent groups, lawmakers and politicians, making it the latest target of school culture wars. SEL teaches what is traditionally known as “Soft skills”; these are the social and emotional tools that help students make good choices, manage their emotions, create positive relationships, and collaborate. We have been teaching these same skills in our public schools for decades, with a large body of research to support it. Another huge problem with the claim to being an “SEL” or “Character Education” class is that schools are offering no other instructed curriculum or course option in these categories or following state standards, making it inherently discriminatory against the students who are opted out of attending.
State Funding Allocation &Attendance Tracking
For more information on these topics visit Respect Public Schools
All of the documents cited here (excluding emails) and many more can be found in full at our Documentation page. For copies the of email archive please Reach Out.