Actually i think you're just pissing in the wind if you think you can "teach" someone their personality.
You're right, but, there again, I didn't say that.
What you *can* do is give them better ideas on how to behave towards other people.
As for children not being born racist, homophobic, etc, that all might work in your ideal land, but the reality is our schools these days are being filled with kids from certain religions where all of these things are blatantly taught as being "taboo" to say the very least, starting at home, so again there is also that mountain to climb.
And you then have the choice of balkanising groups, just like the "We don't play with her" mother I mentioned above, or you can actually *TALK* to people and try to understand their viewpoints and, just maybe, they'll understand ours instead of everyone developing a "them and us" mentality.
But if you don't listen, you'll never learn.
Another thing that needs to be mentioned is the amount of drugs that are so easily available these days that have flooded the world. I never had any idea whatsoever about drugs when i was at school, not a clue, but you look at any suburban film involving teenage kids these days and there seems to be a constant flow and misuse of drugs. Guaranteed to change the nicest personality in the world to a fucked up degenerate.
Yes, because, as Professor David Nutt pointed out to the Home Office, MDMA (Ecstasy) is no more dangerous than riding a horse and Cannabis is less dangerous (and causes less problems) than alcohol.
But, hey, let's all just get pissed and smoke fags because *they* aren't a problem...
Hasn't home life and schools agendas been all about teaching right from wrong from an early age? Are we not doing that now, still? It's multiculturalism that could well be the downfall and undoing of any previously good work.
Like it or not, the facts are that there are so many different stances to life in the UK right now that it's all going a bit Pete Tong. And the "them and us" gap is becoming much wider. We have UK teachers trying to teach kids from all over the world about how "we" think life should be lived but then these same kids go back home and they're immediately back in their home land, and it all goes out the window. Some of these kids, and adults, have seen acts of atrocity that we wouldn't even see in horror films, that have almost become the norm for them, and i've no doubt they're still etched quite clearly in their minds. Problem is, to some of them, mad violence, homophobia, etc, was just a part of everyday life, they know no different yet we have these kids integrating with British kids so as you can guess trying to get such a class full of kids to all behave the same and understand decent values is indeed like "pissing in the wind".
As for the drug thing, yes we all know booze and cigarettes are harmful, nobody's even trying to dispute that at all, but i think it's all about not adding to problems we already have. Government are trying to outprice cigarettes with added horrifying ad campaign to try and make you quit, and i think it is slowly but surely making an impact on a lot of people.
In my opinion the only people who would benefit from legalizing certain drugs would be the "stay at home" type.
If you're using cannabis for example to ease illness pain, then good luck to you, i'm all for that. But don't expect employers to tolerate drug use, 'cos they won't due to health & safety issues, the same as booze isn't tolerated at work either. The problem with cannabis is how long it stays in your system, so employers won't tolerate it and i doubt very much the drug driving laws would change at all either, so you can can see what i meant by "stay at home" type. The unemployed would think they've hit the jackpot, but as we all know if you're gonna do it then you're already doing it.
Comparing taking Ecstasy to riding a horse, well, that's a bit like your DM / Wikipedia comment, just irrelevant.