Nobody Left to Hate: Teaching Compassion after Columbine

Nobody Left to Hate: Teaching Compassion after Columbine. By Elliott Aronson. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 2000. xi + 179pp. $19.95 (cloth): $12.95 (paper).

The tragedy of the high school killings in Colorado prompted distinguished social psychologist Elliott Aronson to publish Nobody Left to Hate: Teaching Compassion after Columbine. Appalled by many of the solutions proposed by policy makers, Dr. Aronson believed he had something useful to contribute to the nationwide dialogue focused on school violence. Informed by forty years of work in schools, Dr. Aronson's voice, experience and recommendations demand attention. Nobody Left to Hate accurately describes the competitive, cliquish and exclusionary social atmosphere present in most American middle and high schools (p. 15). His account rang true to what I saw in my own twenty-five years as a high school teacher and principal. Dr. Aronson's recommendations to fix these deep-seated social problems beg implementation. Everyone who serves, teaches, raises, leads or influences young people should carefully read Dr. Aronson's engaging and significant work.

In 179 pages, Nobody Left to Hate: Teaching Compassion after Columbine describes what happened at Columbine, explains human social interactions, identifies peripheral interventions and suggests interventions of root causes. Dr. Aronson contends that the unpleasant atmosphere in schools can be changed into an atmosphere in which there is nobody left to hate (p. 20).

Dr. Aronson suggests that the killers in the Columbine tragedy were reacting in an extreme and pathological manner to a general atmosphere of exclusion. Humans, as social animals, are deeply influenced by other people and the way they are treated in the general social climate of any social situation. Peripheral interventions such as passing laws, making rules, posting the Ten Commandments or installing surveillance cameras fall short of addressing the central problem (p. 64). Too many middle and high school students are excluded, taunted and lonely in schools (p. 90). The Search Institute's 1996 survey of 100,000 middle and high school students confirms Aronson's depiction of the unfriendly environment in too many schools. Only twentyfour percent of the surveyed students indicated that their school is a caring, encouraging place (What Teens Need to Succeed, Free Spirit Publishing, 1998).

In an era of parents and politicians pushing our schools to produce better-educated students who can pass standardized tests, Dr. Aronson expresses concern that policy makers may be losing sight of how crucial the social climate of a school can be in the lives of young people (p. 99). He suggests that schools focus on their students' emotional intelligence along with their academic work. Schools need directly and indirectly to teach empathy, compassion and conflict resolution in order to address the root causes of the bullying, taunting, ostracism and acts of hate. Teachers and administrators must offer students common goals that they can all work toward together to decrease the animosity of cliques (p. 122).

Citing The Students Are Watching (1999), written by respected educators Ted and Nancy Sizer, Dr. Aronson reminds adults that every action and response of adults in the classroom and school hallway sends powerful messages to the students. These messages convey favoritism, exclusion, and competition, or fairness, inclusion, and cooperation. Students are more tuned in to what adults do than what they say (p. 173). That is why the methods of pedagogy used by teachers and the structure of the classroom contribute greatly to the social atmosphere of the classroom and school. Dr. Aronson argues that effective group learning can promote cooperation, empathy, inclusion and connections so that the classroom becomes a positive social environment where students learn to like and respect one another. As a result, taunting and bullying are sharply reduced. Tormentors evolve into supportive helpers and anxious losers begin to enjoy learning and feel accepted for who they are (p. 150).

Dr. Aronson acknowledges that no teaching strategy is perfect. However, each method of teaching conveys important messages to the students. Teachers who lecture send the message that they are an expert source of information. Teachers who send their students to the library send the message that it is useful for students to become skillful researchers. Teachers who require students to interview others convey the message that not all information is contained in books (p. 132.). Strategies that are designed to facilitate cooperation among all students can lead them to value one another as contributors in their common task. As a result, "Before you know it, if you're not careful, you can get to feeling for everybody and there's no one left to hate." (Birdy, Knopf, 1979, cited by Aronson, p. 149).

Dr. Aronson presents many reasons why cooperative learning strategies are rarely used in America's middle and high schools. Teachers often lack training, they believe cooperative endeavors prevent real learning of the material or they fear giving up control of the classroom. A strong advocate for cooperative techniques, Dr. Aronson stresses the benefits of students giving up the effort to triumph over their classmates and learning to listen and share (p. 167). The appeal to transform our schools into places where there are no losers goes beyond the prevention of pathological killers. Dr. Aronson's appeal challenges educators, parents and the public to shape a learning environment that promotes compassion, respect and cooperation, and leaves nobody left to hate.