Schools Are Replacing Academic Education with Personality and Emotional Assessment
Source: Rhonda Thomas. "Teachers Are Grading Kids On Personality And Emotions." May 4, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author argues that schools are spending too much time evaluating kids' feelings and personalities instead of teaching them reading and math. She believes this creates harmful permanent records and takes away parents' rights to guide their children's emotional development.
Conclusion
Modern education programs that evaluate students' personalities, emotions, and behaviors instead of focusing on academic knowledge are harmful and represent a dangerous shift from education toward indoctrination
Premises
- Schools are increasingly adopting programs that measure attitudes, emotions, behaviors, and identity rather than academic knowledge
- These programs create permanent digital records of children's personal reflections and emotional responses that follow them throughout their educational career
- Early personality-based classification systems may inappropriately narrow children's future opportunities based on immature self-perceptions
- Time spent on emotional processing and behavioral observation reduces time available for mastering core academic subjects like reading, mathematics, and science
- National academic assessments show long-term declines in core academic performance, particularly in reading and mathematics
- These changes are being implemented without clear announcement or open debate with parents
- The shift represents government institutions influencing areas that historically belonged to families
Assumptions
- Academic knowledge (reading, math, science) should be the primary focus of education
- Personality and emotional traits are too personal and variable to be appropriately assessed by schools
- Parents have the primary right to influence their children's emotional and identity development
- Permanent records of childhood emotional states are inherently harmful
- There is a zero-sum relationship between time spent on social-emotional learning and academic instruction