Every single day in the Christian junior high school I sent my son to he was ranted at by fundie Christians. Every single day his Bible teacher would tell him that the earth was 6000 years old. Every day the Math teacher would tell him that only born-agains were real Christians. Every day the English teacher would tell him that the Harry Potter books were immoral and full of "Satan," because they had magic in them. Every day, the Bible teacher would tell him that man and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and man bones had been found inside dinosaurs. Every day some students would tell my son that since he was Catholic, he was going to hell.
I liked the people who ran the school, I liked some of the kids (the ones my son was friends with) and I really liked the safety of the school - so rather than take my son out of the school or tell my son to tape his wingnut teachers and send the tape to Air America, I taught him that he had to learn to debate, and debate with facts. Do his research, formulate his argument, and clearly and politely present his view.
He debated his Bible teacher every day for 3 years. The beauty of it was that he won the Bible award every year - the only Catholic winning the Bible award, with a 100% average. You know why? He was interested in the stories, and was always thinking about whether they were literal or not.
And now, in public school, his Academic Quiz Team just qualified for the National Championships. So I guess telling my son to learn to research, think and debate was actually a better approach than telling him to tape his teachers and call a talk show host.
And now, I am really pushing my son towards international policy or public policy since he loves history and politics, but he also loves science and design. I figure there are a lot of designers, some scientists, but very few strong progressive Democrats who can argue, stand their ground, be tough, be honest and kind, and win office. I hope my son will go into politics, as he is all those things.
Sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Allen, wingnuts that you are, you missed the boat with your son.