3. Health And Physical Education
One of the fundamentals in Health is making good decisions. This is critical for relationship building, avoiding undue peer pressure, staying clear of drugs and other substances that can have detrimental effects on a student's welfare. Of course, these are all issues that a young teen has to encounter in adolescence and can be completely observed and understood by watching Star Trek. Look at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's villains: The Dominion. The muscle of the Founders the Jem H'adar is dependent on a drug called ketracel white. Without it, they lose all inhibition, judgement and are completely dependent upon the Vorta and obey all their orders, unquestioningly. It's a really way to show kids just how powerful drug dependency can be. I mean, the Jem H'adar fear NOTHING. They are the ultimate shock troops who walk into a battle with the idea that they are already dead. Therefore, when confronted with the enemy, they have nothing to lose. You would think these guys would be strong enough to throw the monkey of their collective backs. But for a few vials of the stuff every day, they'll rip out their own intestines to strangle their enemies. Drugs are bad, kids. It's the same thing with the STTOS episode "The Naked Time". In this episode, the crew is infected with a virus that removes all inhibitions and subdues better judgement. It's sort of like the whole ship is on a massive campus quad party binge-fest and is essentially useless for about a weekend. Of course, what better way to demonstrate the effects of alcohol abuse? If you are so completely hammered that the prospect of being dragged down to destruction by the increasingly powerful gravity of a disintegrating planet doesn't faze you in the least, then this can teach kids that the similar effect of too much alcohol is a damn, scary thing.