School Atmosphere

Elliot Aronson’s heart is in the right place (“Look Beneath the Surface of School Violence,” Opinion, March 5), but his solutions would bring us back to the progressive model of education where individual learning takes a back seat to cooperative learning and feelings-based lessons. Aronson wants no losers and no competition. Unfortunately, this is not how the real world works. The trick is to teach students that you can compete and still be decent and lose and still retain dignity while trying again. Students can be taught these things without cooperative learning. A teacher just needs to communicate that his/her classroom is a place of respect/kindness.

What is really needed is character education that teaches students right from wrong.

MARK COHEN

Huntington Beach