Connections Before Chords: Moving Beyond Compliance in Music Class

Social emotional learning (SEL) offers music educators the opportunity to support students’ emotional, social, and cognitive development through music-making. While SEL holds transformative potential, it can also become a compliance-driven framework that undermines authentic engagement. This column examines the opportunities and pitfalls of implementing SEL in the music classroom and highlights strategies for intentional, culturally responsive, and musically grounded practice.