Why are some parts of the country considered more "laid back" than others or considered to have more "nice people?" I suspect that environmental factors are very important in terms of teaching people emotional and social coping skills. The Lord of the Flies environment we've created in many schools, where the only adults that kids can model after are in the same unpopular, beleaguered position as umpires at a baseball game, and the only other available models are kids who have just been there a couple of years longer.

It's not that schools teaching emotional intelligence is a great idea. It's more that the status quo at most schools is just plain bad.