Schools should not help students understand moral choices or social issues beyond the general curriculum already provided. Principles should be guidelines that an individual abides by, without any direct outside enforcement, and people will naturally regard social issues as past experience has encouraged. With a school’s forced intervention, the student loses the opportunity to independently discover what is within his own means.
Developing moral values and understanding social situations is meant to be an individual effort because those qualities are uniquely defined as you live life, not a generic standard that is applicable to everyone. Having a school enforce choices may seem like a decent plan to bring about a new generation with predetermined and accepted values. However, if schools take up the responsibility of educating students in moral decisions and tact, then this endeavor can never realistically be accepted and have an influence over the entire student body. The only effect these programs will have is over the students that were originally easily swayed, regardless of the source of influence. These students will be equally liable to be pressured by others; thus, the process of attempting to teach these students is futile. The students that are capable of thinking for themselves will naturally gain experience (from their own lives) that dictates the values and choices that they will make as adults.
There is no need for unnecessary “intervention” lessons, when a part of the traditional curriculum already teaches students past failures and successes. History, an established subject in most schools, not only provides endless facts and experiences of past lives but may also act as an example of making the correct or problematic moral choices as well as resolving or creating social issues. English or literature, a mandatory class in most schools, exposes students to an often more emotional account for past trials in a more broad spectrum...