Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above. Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.（理想和现实）
Many people assert that schools should teach only academic skills, and not ethical or social values. I agree with them insofar as instruction on certain moral issues is best left to parents and churches. However, in my view it is in the best interests of a democratic society for schools to teach at least the values necessary to preserve freedom and a democratic way of life, and perhaps even additional values that enrich and nurture3 asociety and its members.
We all have in interest in preserving our freedom and democratic way of life. At the very least, then, schools should provide instruction in the ethical and social values required for our democracy to survive-particularly the values of respect and tolerance4. Respect for inpidual persons is a basic ethical value that requires us to acknowledge the fundamental equality of all people, a tenet of a democratic society. Tolerance of differences among inpiduals and their viewpoints is required to actualize many of our basic constitutional rights-including life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and freedom of speech and religion. While respect and tolerance are the minimal5 values that schools should teach, the list should ideally go further-to include caring, compassion6, and willingness to help one another. A democracy might survive without these values, but it would not thrive. Respect and tolerance without compassion, it seems to me, breed a cool aloofness7 that undermines our humanity, and leaves those in the worst position to suffer more and suffer alone-an unhealthy state for any society.
Admittedly, schools should avoid advocating particular viewpoints on controversial moral issues such as abortion8 or capital punishment. Instruction on issues with clear spiritual or religious implications is best left to parents and churches. Even so, schools should teach students how to approach these kinds of issues-by helping9 students to recognize their complexity10 and to clarify competing points of view. In doing so, schools can help breed citizens who approach controversy11 in the rational and responsible ways characteristic of a healthy democracy.
In sum, schools should by all means refrain from indoctrinating our young people with particular viewpoint on controversial questions of morality. However, it is in a democratic society's interest for schools to inculcate the democratic values of respect and tolerance, and perhaps even additional values that humanize and enrich a society
