On any given Friday, you might walk into a school and see teachers in jeans, a snack cart in the lounge, or a handwritten note of appreciation in a mailbox. These moments are great; they signal care and acknowledge effort.
But let’s be honest: this is not adult social-emotional learning. And when we confuse the two, we risk trivializing something that is far more powerful and far more necessary.
Adult SEL is not a morale boost. It is not a reward system. It is not an initiative to roll out once a year.
It is, as defined in the research, the process through which adults develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to manage emotions, build relationships, and make responsible decisions within complex environments (CASEL, 2020). And in schools, those environments are anything but simple.