OpinionS about Second Step

THE CONS ABOUT SECOND STEP

By Emma

I really dislike Second Step. The animation is chunky and pretty poor quality, it very much simplifies real life problems, but it doesn't help anything, it just makes people bored. To top it all off, a lot of things we learn in Second Step are things we’ll never actually have to use, or things we learn everyday in life, and if we don’t, then that’s because we don’t need to know it. 

I think that the problems they show are occasionally valid, but the way they deal with those issues are not realistic and pretty simplistic. For example, gossip. If you go ahead and tell a kid that’s gossiping about you, “Hello, can you please stop gossiping about me?” the chances are higher that the kid that’s gossiping about you will say, “What the heck? I’m not gossiping about you,” instead of, “I’m sorry, I won’t gossip about you.” 

Second Step is also impersonal, meaning for example, if a class has no issues whatsoever with setting goals, but major issues with bullying, Second Step will show how to deal with setting goals, something that would be totally useless to that class. 

The alternative to Second Step could maybe be replaced by a more interesting activities like, if a child or group of children are having issues that KEEP repeating themselves, like gossip, bullying, etc., we can talk about it as a class, in a way so that we don’t have to listen to problems that will never actually happen. Teachers could also cherry-pick Second Step lessons that apply to their class. 

I asked 5th graders their opinions on Second Step, and this is what I got:

“I think it’s really annoying, and also I think there could be much more things we could do in that time, like a different kind of Second Step.” – Violet 5th grader

“I think that Second Step is a complicated way to teach us social and emotional helping and SEL, and some people might think it’s something for younger kids, but I think it helps,” – Jacob

“I myself don't like Second Step, but there are some people that might like it, and I don’t think we should take that away from them, maybe there could be an option for second step, and the other kids could read or catch up on work,” – Harper 

“My opinion is.. It's boring, it’s prbably not gonna do anything for us, we should learn to catch taxis, count taxes, and find jobs, stuff that will be more useful. We don’t need Second Step. The last time I got bullied was in Kindergarten. You're not gonna get bullied when you're an adult with a PHd.” – Seth 

“I’d rather do second step then nap time so I dunno,” – Eliza-Grey 

WHY I THINK THAT SECOND STEP IS A GOOD THING

by Jacob and Jay

     I think that Second Step is a good thing because it takes your mind off things and gives your brain a break which might not sound like much but for people who need it believe me it is. 

     Some people think it’s stupid but it’s not. It's just made for a lot of different grades. Some people might even find it challenging if they’re young. 

     If you like videos you’re in luck because Second Step is basically a bunch of videos with a SMALL sheet at the end to see what you learn. 

     So overall if you need a bit of a break watching  a video can SOMETIMES help. So don’t think it’ll solve everything but it’s worth a good try.