Schools: Delegates, not surrogates

While I did not receive a lot of responses to my last post, mostly because I don't update frequently anymore, I did receive a very misguided post on my livejournal mirror in which a very disturbing post was made:

«I think that parents shouldn't have much of a say in their children's education. They can move schools or even move to different states or countries if they're really bothered by the school curriculum. They already control a major part of education through their control on home life.
Schools are supposed to serve and represent the students, not the parents. The teachers and administration are the most intimately acquainted with children outside of their home setting so they are best suited to create the curriculum. It doesn't mean that they're fantastic at it, but they're better than parents.»

This can only be stated upon the most misguided and totalitarian principles imaginable.  Allow me to tear this apart piece by piece.

«I think that parents shouldn't have much of a say in their children's education.»

This is a bad foot to get off on to begin with.  In a free society, choice is key.  Particularly when it comes to parents raising their children.  Only in the most vile societies are parents cut out of their own children's upbringing in such a manner.  The Soviet Union and Red China come to mind, as do the Hitler Youth.  I know what the standard response would be from anyone who holds the above fallacious view...they would compare it misguidedly to the Boy Scouts.  However, there is a key difference.  There is no political pressure in the US involved with having your son join or participate in the Boy Scouts.  In most cases there is no other alternative but to place a child in public schooling.

Which brings me to the next misguided sentence, which I will summarily rend asunder.

«They can move schools or even move to different states or countries if they're really bothered by the school curriculum.»

This is exactly the kind of "go f*** yourselves" attitude parents are receiving that is such a problem.  In a free society, all things are accountable to the people, particularly the people affected by the subject at hand. I have yet to see this happening...if parents are forced to move to get away from such schools, there is something inherently wrong with the system in place for schools in that area.

«They already control a major part of education through their control on home life.»

That has nothing to do with it.  Parents should always be in control of how their children are raised.  It is a vital part of parenting to be able to choose what is and is not acceptable in regards to your children.

«Schools are supposed to serve and represent the students, not the parents.»

Also a fallacy.  Schools are supposed to teach students, but they fail to do so anymore.  All they seem to do is indoctrinate, which is a realm that is not the job of the government of any free people.  This also neglects that the government must be accountable to the people, not simply above them.

«The teachers and administration are the most intimately acquainted with children outside of their home setting so they are best suited to create the curriculum. It doesn't mean that they're fantastic at it, but they're better than parents.»

Have you proof?  I have not seen any reliable evidence of anything of the sort.  Meanwhile, I have seen with my own two eyes exactly the opposite, which is to say that schools do a very poor job of educating and instead tend to focus on indoctrination and teaching to suit a standardized test with no regard to whether the knowledge will ever benefit the students at all.

To put it succinctly, raising children is the parents' job, not that of the government.  Schools are delegates of parents, not surrogates to them.  If the schools are not reflecting the will of the parents, then the schools are inherently flawed in their existence.