I think it would be best if children lived in an environment where they could learn about all the various cultural and religious creation stories as well as all the present scientific views. It's better to know about many things rather to know only about one or two views on something. That way you can use the brain that either God...or Nature...or both (whatever you like)...gave you, and make up your own mind about what you think.

What scares the hell out of most parents is that their kids might start to think independently, think for themselves, and end up believing something different from what their parents believe. And that is the main impetus that keeps older people trying constantly to control the information that younger people might be exposed to. This is as true of religious parents as it is of atheist parents.    They're protecting their own mental turf and trying to extend it into the indefinite future through their children, that's all.

When I was a child, I wanted to know it all. I didn't want to be told just one story and told "That's all there is to it". But I was, of course, affected by my parents' preconceptions, and they were atheists, so I was basically atheistic too until I reached my early twenties. Then the natural spirit of rebellion in me got me reading a lot of spiritual stuff, and I eventually ended up believing in both the scientific view and the spiritual view of life. I find much value in both of them. I am no fundamentalist. I hope that all young people get a chance to learn about both science and the great religions of the past, as well as more modern spiritual viewpoints coming out now, and I hope they have as little prejudice pushed down their throats as possible.

That will depend more on their parents than on their schools, but it will depend on both.