In a discussion on Plastic about Baptists potentially removing their children from public school in droves, <a href="http://www.plastic.com/comments.html;sid=04/05/06/04160239;cid=165#22">One thing I don't understand about Plastic</a> was rated 'Brilliant' for saying said that: <bq>What most parents are trying to get through homeschooling is not a better education but one that more closely fits their own ideology, even to the point of downright denial of facts and the censorship of ideas. For the sake of their ideology they exclude knowledge, which is a harm to the child.</bq> Whereas the point is valid, the commenter is ignoring the fact that <i>all</i> education is indoctrination. It's just a matter of how well the education lines up with "reality" and how well that education prepares the person for survival in the world. Also important is whether that education creates a moral being. Is it worse to indoctrinate your child with your own world view ... or to let your child be indoctrinated with a government-sanctioned worldview intended to create worker drones/consumers that will perpetuate the existing system of power without question? It all depends on whether your worldview is even stupider and more dangerous than the one recommended by the government. What about world views that look at capitalism and society's definition of success with skepticism --- even suspicion? What about world views that emphasize morality above success? Treating others with respect, equally and fairly is often in direct contrast with a formula for success in our society --- if you emphasize ethics, your child will probably not be successful or 'fit in' to the higher echelons of society. Have you, in that case, wronged your child? I don't think so. Whereas empasizing ethics above success is also indoctrination, it is preparing your child to make a better world, a better society than the one we have today. The child will not necessarily be geared for success --- will perhaps view success in a society such as ours (primarily material gain) as hollow and worthless --- but will be geared for change that benefits society in the long run. That's a far more useful education than the short-term survival training the government wants you to have. If you take a look at public education in America today, say in the history or social studies areas, I think that <iq>downright denial of facts ... censorship of ideas</iq> applies there as well. The world view you pick up in American school is only coincident with reality in the sense that it creates and maintains a reality our society needs in order to continue. (anybody else here take High School economics or history in the 80s? Anybody else discover there's not a whole lot of overlap with reality?) Without sufficient indoctrination, the whole system would fall on its face, as 99% of the people wake up and find that they, in fact, are getting screwed. How can a parent screw it up worse that that?