09-14-2022, 02:08 AM
I think it's reasonable to argue that children need protection from the more extreme and dangerous practices of some parents -- I'm referring specifically to parents who refuse to allow medical care for potentially lethal infectious diseases such as meningitis. There are also cases where children have died from potentially curable childhood cancers, again due to refusal on the part of the parents.
In this case, I would submit that there is a legitimate question as to whether something analogous is going on, in the sense that the children are being kept ignorant of a major part of our civilization. Particularly when the children are being kept ignorant of the subject we used to call civics, there is a serious issue. The need for an informed electorate is one of our founding principles.
Our civilization puts limits on religious practice. We draw the line at ritual murder and child beating (not to mention wife beating) and I suspect that most child protection agencies would intervene when parents raise their children as Nazis and the equivalent. We also require vaccination -- for another reason, having to do with protecting the rest of the public.
The question here, it would seem to me, is whether the most extreme practices are detrimental to the children because the children are deprived of some critically important choices because they are deprived of the knowledge that these choices exist. There is a second, equally important question, namely whether such practices create enclaves that are a danger to the democratic functioning of the city and the state. For example, are the children kept ignorant of the principle of separation of church and state (seems unlikely) and are they kept ignorant of American history (seems likely) along with basic arithmetic and all that.
In this case, I would submit that there is a legitimate question as to whether something analogous is going on, in the sense that the children are being kept ignorant of a major part of our civilization. Particularly when the children are being kept ignorant of the subject we used to call civics, there is a serious issue. The need for an informed electorate is one of our founding principles.
Our civilization puts limits on religious practice. We draw the line at ritual murder and child beating (not to mention wife beating) and I suspect that most child protection agencies would intervene when parents raise their children as Nazis and the equivalent. We also require vaccination -- for another reason, having to do with protecting the rest of the public.
The question here, it would seem to me, is whether the most extreme practices are detrimental to the children because the children are deprived of some critically important choices because they are deprived of the knowledge that these choices exist. There is a second, equally important question, namely whether such practices create enclaves that are a danger to the democratic functioning of the city and the state. For example, are the children kept ignorant of the principle of separation of church and state (seems unlikely) and are they kept ignorant of American history (seems likely) along with basic arithmetic and all that.