What should we be teaching for? What kind of mensch should schools be trying to create?

Two choices for reflections this time:

1. Define your idea of the nature of a human being. If you can, tell us the essential qualities of a human, and what makes a human different from a non-human. What kind of alien (or animal?) could have an honorary human status? What would it have to do or think or feel?Then tell us what schools can do for these beings. What would the best school do for the kind of person you’re defining? What qualities (if any) would be enhanced and how? And what qualities (if any) would be controlled or removed or destroyed and how?
2. How can schools help us to relate better to our fellow humans–especially different kinds of humans? Or is this even a job schools should be doing at all? In kindergarten, we were taught to play nicely and not hit. Is that enough? Has your schooling given you an appreciation of and acceptance of difference? How has that happened?