It's the wholesale confiscation of time honored parental rights by intellectuals who "know better" than everyone else how children should be raised that raises the hackles for me.[/QUOTE]

Well, to kind of level the field, my hackles are raised by people who want to impose their religious views on everyone else on every possible subject, including child raising/education. Do you think the relgious folk know better then a trained professional? Two sides to every issue.

Like I said, morality is up to the family...the facts of procreation are FACTS. Knowledge is power. You have no idea how many young girls I worked with who believed you could not get pregnant the first time you had sex or that STDs were something only skanks got.

I always told the kids that people are different, religious beliefs are different, but you have to respect others points of view. Different does not mean better or worse. It means different. You have to be accepting of differences, until they try to ram their ideas down your throat and treat you with no respect.

Given the state of many youth these days, their parents did not do such a great job. I can not believe what I hear out of parents mouths these days..the language I would not ever use in public to another adult, let alone a child. I used to intervene when I saw parents abusing their children in public, but that never ended well. Any adult who would assault a child has little behavioral control with adults. I stopped intervening directly, but I would call 911 and ask for police intervention. A child should not be struck repeatedly in the head for dropping an ice cream cone. So, you know what, sometimes parents should have NO rights.

Sorry this kind of rambled all over the place....