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Some public schools try to alienate kids from their parents, denigrating values that the kids have been brought up with. You don't know what goes on there for 7 hours a day unless you really question your kid. The kids are really guineau pigs for any crazy crackpot experimentation. I believe some of this mind bending took place at Columbine -- they had something called "death education" (I've heard about the program in other public schools) where kids visited funeral parlors and wrote their own obituaries. Why?

There was an article recently in educationnews.org where a 4th grade teacher had his students read, "The Giver" a book about a utopian society (and not age appropriate) which upset some of the kids. Of course, the teacher mocked out a parent who complained.

Someone recently said on another thread that the new NYC School Chancellor was a member of the Clinton's staff during their stay in the White House. Looks like Hillary and Bill are going to do to NYC what they did to Arkansas regarding education.

My child read "The Giver", but in Middle School. I read it at that time too. It is really an excellent book. It is about Utopia, but when the "Giver" is relating all of history to his successor (a 13 yr old), the point is well made, that this is, in fact, no Utopia. I would highly recommend this book.

some of this mind bending took place at Columbine -- they had something called "death education" (I've heard about the program in other public schools) where kids visited funeral parlors and wrote their own obituaries.

As a junior in high school, our sociology class went on a field trip to a funeral home (with parental permission of course). For many of us, it was our first time in one. We didn't go to the embalming rooms or anything gross like that, but the funeral home director spoke to us about the evolution of funeral practives over the years, about reverence for the dead and the importance of family in funeral tradition. Not so bad. But yeah, writing your own obituary? That is SO sick!

Really talking to your kids is the key. Any parent who really talks to their kids would not allow a school to alienate them. They would know what was happening.

When my son was in seventh grade, the school brought in a group of players for what they called diversity training. The kids expected it to be on boy on girl sexual harassment, but it was on Gay rights. Anyway the kids were puzzled by the the skits, they really weren't very conscious of homosexuality and were shocked by all the talk. Anyway, during the question and answer period, my son stood up and asked the guy if he was gay and if that is why he was doing this. The guy was stunned and didn't know what to say. But my point is that my son wasn't being converted to lib-think. It ruined the whole session and gave other kids the strength to question, also.