Quote:
Originally Posted by rcentros
If parents pay for public schools,
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People pay for public schools, not just parents.
The purpose of public schools is to give children an education, the schools are not there for the parents' sake. It's in the interest of everybody that children get a good education, that they get access to books which will make them well informed and happy. Parents can tell their children whatever they want at home, but at school everybody should be exposed to the views of the broader society, and have a chance to learn valuable things their parents might be unwilling or unable to teach them.
What "well informed" and "valuable" means will, of course, vary with time and place, and people will disagree about what it means. Of course the choice of books is political, there's no way it can be anything else. There's no book collection or set of selection criteria which is neutral.
My children learnt things I disagree with in school. That's one of the costs of living in a society. I discussed some topics with them, and told them that it's OK to take their time to decide what they want to believe.