The Systems That Survive: Issue #8

Merchant Ship Collective | Education Catalyst Series
By Lyndsay LaBrier

When Support Becomes a Product

Social-emotional learning was never meant to be an industry.

At its core, SEL is simple and human: teaching children how to recognize emotions, regulate stress, build relationships, and navigate challenges. These skills have always mattered — and they have always been taught best through trusted relationships, stable environments, and responsive adults.

But over the past decade, SEL has been transformed from a human practice into a commercial product.

What was once rooted in child development and psychology is now packaged into curricula, subscriptions, assessments, screeners, dashboards, certifications, and digital platforms — many of them marketed directly to schools serving children with the highest levels of trauma.

SEL didn’t grow because children suddenly needed emotions explained to them.
It grew because schools were destabilized by policy decisions, funding cuts, and staffing shortages — and vendors stepped in to sell “solutions.”

From Relationship to Revenue

The modern SEL movement accelerated during moments of crisis: school violence, rising anxiety, the pandemic, and increasing awareness of trauma. These moments created urgency — and urgency created opportunity.

Instead of investing deeply in counselors, psychologists, social workers, and smaller class sizes, schools were encouraged to adopt SEL programs.

These programs promised:

• trauma responsiveness

• emotional regulation

• improved behavior

• improved academic outcomes

• safer school climates

What they delivered, far too often, was scripted lessons, emotion charts, checklists, and digital tracking systems that reduce complex human experiences into measurable data points.

SEL became something schools implemented rather than something adults modeled.

And the more overwhelmed schools became, the more dependent they grew on external products to manage emotions they no longer had the capacity to hold.

Trauma Is Not a Curriculum

Trauma is relational.
Healing is relational.
Regulation is relational.

Yet many SEL programs are built on the assumption that emotional skills can be standardized, assessed, and scaled like math instruction.

Children are asked to:

• label emotions on command

• complete self-reflections that are recorded

• answer questions about feelings without context

• disclose experiences without guaranteed support

• engage in “check-ins” that are monitored or archived

In schools without adequate mental health staffing, these practices can unintentionally re-traumatize students — asking them to surface emotions with no trained professional available to respond.

SEL programs often assume children need instruction in empathy or regulation, when in reality they need:

• safety

• consistency

• predictable adults

• reduced stress

• secure relationships

A program cannot replace a regulated adult.

The Datafication of Children’s Inner Lives

As SEL expanded, so did assessment.

Many programs now include screeners that measure:

• emotional risk

• resilience

• mindset

• coping skills

• self-awareness

• behavioral tendencies

These assessments generate data dashboards used by schools, districts, and sometimes third-party vendors.

Children’s emotional states become metrics.
Trauma becomes a data point.
Healing becomes a graph.

Parents are often unaware of:

• how long SEL data is stored

• who has access to it

• how it may be shared

• whether it follows students between schools

What began as support increasingly resembles surveillance — especially in high-poverty schools where SEL monitoring is most heavily implemented.

Who the SEL Industry Serves — and Who It Burdens

Students

Children learn that emotions are something to perform, report, or regulate quickly — rather than something to explore safely. Vulnerable students are asked to disclose without adequate protection or follow-up.

Teachers

Educators are asked to deliver SEL lessons, manage emotional disclosures, document responses, and track progress — often without training, time, or support. When students struggle, teachers are blamed for “implementation fidelity.”

Families

Parents may feel grateful schools are addressing emotional needs — yet uneasy about how much personal information is being collected and how little control they have over it.

Communities

Resources are diverted toward programs instead of people. Funds that could support counselors, family liaisons, or community partnerships flow instead to curriculum licenses and digital platforms.

The Nation

We normalize treating children’s emotions as data while failing to address the policies that created widespread stress, instability, and trauma in the first place.

Why SEL Persists Despite Weak Evidence

Like PBIS, SEL persists not because outcomes are strong — but because the ecosystem supporting it is.

The SEL industry includes:

• curriculum publishers

• EdTech platforms

• assessment vendors

• certification programs

• consultants and trainers

• grant-funded initiatives

• state-level mandates

Success is often measured by adoption rates and completion metrics, not long-term well-being.

SEL appears compassionate.
It photographs well.
It produces reports.

And in systems under pressure, appearance often replaces substance.

FACTS & STATISTICS

• The global SEL market is projected to exceed $6 billion by 2030 (HolonIQ, 2022).

• Schools spend millions annually on SEL curricula and assessments, often while reducing counseling staff (EdWeek, 2021).

• There is limited evidence that standalone SEL programs improve long-term mental health outcomes without strong relational support (Durlak et al., 2011; APA, 2020).

• SEL screeners disproportionately flag students in high-poverty schools as “at risk,” increasing surveillance rather than support (APA, 2021).

• Students show greater emotional growth in schools with stable relationships and lower adult turnover than in schools with formal SEL programs (Darling-Hammond, 2019).

SEL programs generate documentation — not healing.

A CALL TO ACTION — Reclaim Emotional Support From the Marketplace

Children do not need their emotions packaged, tracked, or sold.

They need:

• trusted adults

• stable classrooms

• trained mental health professionals

• time to connect

• environments that reduce stress rather than measure it

• policies that address root causes, not symptoms

SEL should be a practice, not a product.
Support should be relational, not transactional.
And trauma should never be monetized.

If we truly care about children’s emotional well-being, we must stop outsourcing it to industries that profit from their pain.

In solidarity,

Lyndsay LaBrier
Merchant Ship Collective

References

American Psychological Association. (2020). Addressing trauma in schools.
American Psychological Association. (2021). Equity and school mental health.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2019). Building equitable learning environments.
Durlak, J. A., et al. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning.
EdWeek. (2021). The rise of SEL programs in U.S. schools.
HolonIQ. (2022). Global SEL market outlook.