I take that as a rhetorical question. Of course the answer is not. Not if it takes time away from what they should be studying and not for the schools to be bothering themselves with. Schools are a place of learning. Not a place of indoctrination.
I agree with you, but you would be amazed at the number of people, who will agree on emotion, that teaching kiddies to "be kind to the animals" in school is a good thing.
Unfortunately, those people who realize that educators need every minute to teach kids the basics have to be on guard constantly against the Gramcians. PETA and other leftists drool over the prospect of shaping our little "skulls full of mush", and to heck with giving them an actual education.