Of course the conundrum is that people such as wintertime believe that there can be no neutrality when it comes to god. That all education must come from a theistic worldview, and most likely their specific theistic worldview.
So in a free society what do you do? I think the best answer is neutrality in the public schools with the parents having the option to opt out entirely. However, you are still taking money from those people to promote a view they do not agree with.
In a pluralistic society like ours there is no good answer. If you completely get government out of the education system you will have alot of children not see the inside of a classroom due to their parents not being able to afford it or not caring. This is how government schools began in the first place.
For full disclosure I did teach in public schools for a few years. All of it in city schools and I do not miss it. Many freepers like to beat up on teachers but it is one of the toughest jobs out there. I would rather deploy to Iraq again or Afghanistan before I would go back to teaching.
The thing is that I agree with wintertime that everthing has a theistic worldview. But I need to think more to give you an adequate response.
No, I do NOT argue that all education must be, and can only be, from a theistic worldview. Heavens! NO!
There are many examples of secular ( godless) schools. Many private schools are secular ( godless in their worldview. All government schools are.
In a completely private system of schools, parents would chose, or reject, this godless education for their children. That is fine with me but no one should fool themselves into thinking that secular is the same as religiously neutral. It isn't.
The content of a godless education, the choices made by the teachers and principals, in a godless school are different ( and **not** religiously neutral) in content than one that is God-centered, and NEITHER ( godless or God-centered) is religious neutral in consequences for the child or the nation.
>>”. If you completely get government out of the education system you will have alot of children not see the inside of a classroom due to their parents not being able to afford it or not caring.”<<
Well...What do we have now? There are a lot of children not getting an education now in the government schools.
In fact, there are government schools in this nation soooooo horrific that it would be better for the children to NEVER attend. I seriously mean it. Illiteracy and innumeracy can be fixed. Permanent damage from physical, emotional, and sexual abuse very often can't.
I have repeatedly asked for the controlled scientific studies that prove that children actually learn something in the classroom. No one has ever provided the links.
We have huge prison-like structures, that are VERY expensive to build, maintain, and staff, and do we really know if children are learning anything there??? Really?
I ask this question because when I quiz the parents of academically successful institutionalized children and compare their home lives to those of successful homeschoolers, I find **NO** difference. Both groups of children ( Homeschool and institutionalized) are spending about the **same** amount of time in formal homework at the kitchen table. Both homeschoolers and institutionalized children have similar home habits with bedtimes, meals, exercise, and control of electronics. Both have parents that read to them, take them on educational trips, and encourage learning in the home.
So?...The question that jumps out at me is, “Hm? How much is due to the school and how much is entirely due to the parents and children's efforts?”
It is entirely possible that the only thing that government schools are doing is sending home a curriculum for the parents and child to follow in the home.