Whose beliefs and values should children embrace, teachers or parents? Teachers have declared a war against parents, and many parents are fighting back. Unfortunately, there's a segment of the population that is being neglected during this war, children.
Children should not be trained to depend on others to dictate their beliefs and values. Ideally, they should learn to think for themselves. If children have beliefs and values that match their teachers or parents, we are failing children.
If I had to choose between parental or governmental control over children's minds, I would side with parents. I believe in mental diversity, and it's undeniable that there is more mental diversity among parents than teachers. It can also be seriously problematic to allow the government to use schools as a means to control the beliefs and values of those they are supposed to represent.
Good parents and good teachers should want the same things from children, mental independence. If either is unopen to children having undesirable views, we are doing these children a disservice. The only way for children not to deviate from anyone's perspective on undesirable viewpoints is to constrain viewpoints to our personal notions of what is and is not acceptable. This ultimately promotes mental dependence, which is not what any of us should demand from future generations.
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