This book would be a great read for those in journalism who are interested in being reporters, possibly reporters of trauma.

Communication Booknotes Quarterly

“Clio Stearns’s multidimensional study of early childhood pedagogy richly portrays anxieties, frustrations, and miscommunications made from educators’ attempts to manage affect through a pre-packaged curriculum that flounders in the over-excited world of childhood. Critiquing Social and Emotional Learning is a thoughtful inquiry into education as an emotional situation along with justification for appreciating the depth and surprises of the inner world.”

Deborah P. Britzman, York University and author of Melanie Klein: Early Analysis, Play, and the Question of Freedom

“Dr. Stearns paints a rich portrait of two classrooms separated by socioeconomic forces, but both in the grips of social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula. Demonstrating the neoliberal underpinnings of how young children’s emotions were defined and disciplined across these two sites, Dr. Stearns shows the perniciousness of what she smartly calls ‘hegemonic positivity.’ For those of us - and that is many - who have felt vaguely discomfited by the rise of SEL, this book provides an analysis that equips us to speak out about this increasingly omnipresent set of assumptions and practices in American classrooms.”

Gail Boldt, Penn State University