It may seem odd that the Grouchy Old White Lady (allergic to cats, J.D. Vance, and happily married) is advocating for niceness. Our father used to say "be nice" almost as a mantra, which was drilled into our heads as children. Being nice is a state of mind -- when you are kind to someone, or offer praise, or help someone see your point of view (very difficult in most cases), or listen to theirs carefully and perceptively, you are nice. When you are polite and thoughtful of others, you are nice. You are also practicing "love thy neighbor," which Jesus taught us. "Neighbor" refers not only to your friends but to the people next door, the people down the block, the people in your town or city, the people in your country, the people in the world. "Neighbor" includes people who do not look like you, who have differing perceptions about gender, who may embrace another sexuality, who do not speak your language. This POV by the way is not advocated by the so-called "Christian" Right, whom we should also try to love (no one said being nice is easy) to the extent we can stomach it. Not all of their ideas are terrible. I have no objection to teaching the Bible as literature in schools; the Bible is the foundation for most Western literature, and students' understanding of our history (another subject omitted from many curricula or rewritten, overwritten, erased) would be better served.  I further suggest that this course be accompanied by a world religions course, which is not a Christian Right thing, so kids can understand how Judaism and Christianity fit into the larger context. And I do not approve of whitewashing history even in the earlier grades; kids are not stupid. They know what people are like and likely already know that the world is not altogether rosy and never has been. A return to teaching the classics, Homer, Virgil, Sappho and others, is also an educational desideratum. Fortunately, through the efforts of Rick Riordan and others, the classics have recently experienced a kind of vogue. I am not sure one learns to be nice from reading the Iliad or the Odyssey or Shakespeare, but at least one (usually) knows who the good guys are, and usually the good guys err on the side of generosity. If the world had nicer people and better etiquette (why is etiquette not taught in schools?), we might all be happier. Observing human nature in the nineteenth century,  Flaubert remarked, "To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking all is lost." Have we not evolved somewhat since then? Do human beings ever change? Oh, gawd, the man across the street has just gotten out his leaf blower (worth a whole column in itself). I think I will go tell him off now (now, was that a nice thing to say?).