When I went to grade school, I do not remember the school offering any type of violence prevention class. I also have not heard of grade schools offering those classes on a regular basis for the general student population.
I would like to see more schools offer violence prevention classes, and I would like to see the parents and the schools encourage students to take the violence prevention classes.
With kids who have committed acts of violence, I would suggest considering forcing them into the violence prevention classes as opposed to jail or fines. Violence prevention classes would hopefully help rehabilitate those violent kids so that they do not end up hurting other people and do not end up getting themselves sent to prison later in life.
For the other kids, I personally would not want them forced into violence prevention classes–or forced into any classes for that matter–because I do not want to forcibly indoctrinate kids regardless of the supposed social benefits. But I would still support persuasively encouraging the students to sign up for violence prevention classes. If the classes are run well, then the kids would want to take them. So the goal would be to make the violence prevention classes interesting and helpful to the kids so much so that the kids choose to take the classes and learn from them.
I do not have any particular type of violence prevention in mind. I would like to see a broad range of violence prevention topics offered to students. For example, the classes could address how to resolve conflicts without violence, how to avoid conflicts in the first place, and how to avoid dangerous situations. For another example, the classes could have the students research the harmful effects of violence and research different social movements for peace throughout history.
What do you think? Do you know if many schools offer classes like that? Would you like the schools to offer classes like that? Do you think the students would want to take them?
