Kids in Trouble

The alleged “bitter lesson” taught to us by your editorial, “All Kinds of Kids Get in Trouble” (Jan. 8), leaves me despondent and puzzled. Who is to blame when affluent kids get into trouble? The notion that crime and gangs can somehow “divert” the attention of an otherwise innocent student is ludicrous and obscures the validity of the real lesson to be learned.

The proverbial railroad tracks do not divide, by their propensity to do crime, the rich and the poor. They divide those that have the ability to choose good from evil and those lacking this value.

Although the environment of poverty does negatively influence the options within one’s life, ultimately it is one’s values and the courage to prioritize those values that determine one’s fate in life. Clearly, affluence does not enjoy the market on values, nor poverty on crime.

Over and over, during the reporting of this crime, unusual emphasis has been placed on the academic achievements of the victim and alleged perpetrators. Since intelligence, just as affluence, is neutral as a value, is it possible that we overemphasize the value of education for the sake of material success? Was the learned drive to achieve and acquire, whatever the cost, the veiled perpetrator in this case? Do the families of the accused and the public schools share some of the responsibility by defining success as academic achievement, rather than by mastery of the immutable knowledge available to assist us in choosing right from wrong and good from evil?

PAUL SHEIKEWITZ

Laguna Beach