Research supporting social and emotional learning (SEL) in schools demonstrates numerous benefits for students, including increased academic achievement and social and emotional competencies. However, research supporting the adoption of SEL lacks a clear conception ofethical competence. This lack of clarity is problematic for two reasons. First, it contributes to the conflation of social, emotional, and ethical competencies. Second, as a result, insufficient attention is paid to the related, yet distinct, ends of social-emotional and ethical education. While supporting SEL we critique the assumption of uniformity between social-emotional and ethical literacy and argue for the significance of educational programming to support ethical competencies alongside or within SEL, including educating children to develop an autonomous ethical orientation. Doing so would advance the efforts of educators to provide an education for the whole child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]; Copyright of Ethics & Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)