November 3, 2022

Data-Mining Our Kids

School surveys and social emotional learning present yet another challenge for parents regarding their children’s education.

Public schools were once a place where children went to learn reading, writing, and math. For children across our country, these days are no more.

Many students now start their day with a daily check-in survey that notifies their teacher about how they are feeling that day. Other students may take a “student well-being survey” twice a year. The surveys will allegedly help school administrators measure the school’s climate. In Tennessee, student well-being surveys begin in the third grade, include 50 questions, and take about 10 minutes to complete. Tennessee students in high school complete a 104-question survey that can take about 20 minutes to complete. Hamilton County schools in Tennessee ask harmless questions such as, “Once upset, how often can you calm yourself or relax?” and, “During the last 30 days … how well did you get along with students who are different than you?”

In contrast, the Washington State Health Youth Survey asks middle schoolers questions such as, “During the past 12 months, how many times did you attempt to attempt suicide?” and, “How old were you when you had sex for the first time?”

As demonstrated, the questions range from harmless to invasive, and most parents don’t know their child participates in such surveys. When parents become aware and take steps to opt their child out, they are often met with pushback from administrators. Why do invasive surveys take valuable class time when more than half of American public school students cannot read at grade level?

The answer is social emotional learning (SEL).

The push for SEL in public schools has replaced academics with feelings. When SEL first took form, it was meant to promote skills such as emotional awareness, goal setting, and empathy. There is no question that these skills are monumental to creating productive citizens, but who is responsible for teaching children these skills — the parent or the state? To further understand the need for surveys and SEL in schools, we must follow the money.

School districts across the country hold contracts with a data collection company called Panorama. The company recently made headlines when it was discovered that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s son-in-law is a cofounder of Panorama. According to Forbes, Panorama “sells surveys to school districts across the country that focus on the local ‘social and emotion climate.’” Furthermore, “These surveys are then used as justification for new curriculum from other providers that some parents call critical race theory and find objectionable.”

Panorama contracts range from $80,000 to over $100,000 and often include language that states Panorama does not partake in data mining, but when data is entered to its database it is owned by Panorama. Other included language also considers the parent a third party. This language is concerning to parents because they do not know what happens to their child’s data or who has access to it.

If the public school system in America can be saved, we must stop the data mining of our children, and instead we must prioritize academics.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.