In the last 20 years the level of positive “affect” (feelings, expressions, behaviors) has, in apparent manner, changed for the worse. No longer does still water run deep, but, if compared to a lake, it is wider in factual accumulation, but shallow in the acceptable depth of relationship skills. If this drain/drift continues, the new normal of concern, compassion, empathy, manners modesty, humility will collectively become self-absorption. One can point to a number of indicators; not the least being the combination of rage and indifference that is leading to mass killing.
We need, within all our schools, a specific and continual portion of curriculum: a fourth “R.