If a parent wants to provide the child an ethical education the local 
school system can hardly object.  If he then goes on to say that this 
will be accomplished by the study of the ancient Greek and Latin work 
of Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus and the like, they can hardly complain 
that this is too narrowly relgious to meet state standards. 
 
Indeed, if one reads the writings of our founding fathers, and then 
goes on to read these classics, it becomes pretty obvious where their 
strong sense of ethics, justice and truth came from.  Up until WW II, 
every American who considered himself educated had studied these works. 
In the effort to compete technologically, American schools traded them 
for science and math curricula, which has a cost we all perceive today. 
 
Now, I do not advocate the study of Greek and Latin; modern translators 
have done a superb job in conveying the meaning across the cultural 
differences between the original time and place and ours.  Rudimentary 
Latin and Greek will do little to improve the understanding.  Nor do I 
accept the notion that these works are dry and boring; far from it. If 
you read Plutarch, Ovid and Aesop you see where many of the idoims in 
our language today came from, and their story telling skill is superb. 
If you present such a curricula to the state apparatus, they'll have to 
admit that what they have is inferior, and that by the time they will 
be able to change the bureacracy to accomodate the improvement, your 
kid will have graduated. 
 
The idea that these were pagan writers is a misaprehension; they wrote 
to a pagan audience and often took some pains not to upset readers by 
challenging their superstitions directly.  They all knew that Socrates 
was condemned to death for such a challenge, and often when they wanted 
to express some doubt about social verities, cited the name of Socrates, 
as a code word for skepticism.  They were, except for some sophists, who 
argued atheism for the sake of shock value, all monotheistic in outlook. 
 
... OFFLINE 1.50  "The greatest teacher, Socrates, never made a dime at it."
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