Today, Social emotional learning (SEL) is common in pre-school and school both in Europe and North America. An overall issue in this study concerns the how borders between private and public are constructed and negotiated in schools and pre-schools where socio-emotional programs are practiced. A specific aspect, dealt with in this paper, concerns the processes of internalization, among students and children, of the normative set of values proclaimed by these programs. In this first preliminary analysis we operate within a foucouldian perspective. With this as a point of departure, abilities such as self-control, regulation of emotions and social behavior, and a discursive and social competence for presenting the self are constructed through the production of docile, obedient bodies.