I came across this story in another discussion. It was a fascinating read. I posed a similar question on that thread, but wanted to broaden it to this Parent's forum to get more insights
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-white-flight-of-derek-black/2016/10/15/ed5f906a-8f3b-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.html
As a person who values inclusiveness and diversity, I found Derek's conversion uplifting. I also find Don Black's views quite repugnant. But after reading the story, I stopped looking at Don Black as the white nationalist leader for a moment and just looked at him as a father and as a parent I tried to put myself in Don Black's shoes and wondered how I would feel if I sent my kid away to school and she came back having lost her "family faith" and worse yet, converted to another religion/faith whose views I completely disagreed with? How would I feel if she then told me that my views were terrible, backward and plain wrong?
I know that a lot of people are going to say, "It is her life to live" etc, but the pain of realizing that your child has rejected everything you hold dear and important would cut deep, would it not? We send our child to college to grow and become a more mature person, but if our child completely repudiates everything that we hold dear because of that education, would any of us be happy?
Should we pay to have a college actively bleed our values and traditions out of our kids in the name of "growing as a human being"?
Or
Should we send our kids to a school that will reinforce what we hold dear?
Is it OK to let our child swim in the "shark tank" of an antagonistic culture that is toxic to our very dearly held beliefs? As parents is it our right to expect that our kids will carry our culture, our values and our traditions forward? or is this just our hubris and pride getting in the way of our child becoming a fully responsible and functioning adult?
I don't have any answers, just questions. Would love to understand how other parents have approached this issue, specially where the child, actively disagrees with what the parent holds quite near and dear to their heart after being away at school for a few semesters/quarters.
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