"Religious Indoctrination" vs. "Secular Indoctrination"

Joe asks:

"Prof. Duncan: How would you define "secular indoctrination"? Is it indoctrination in the belief of atheism or indoctrination in the belief that religion and government are both best served by remaining separate? Perhaps this is where we differ. To me, secularism is not a faith or an anti-faith; it is, by definition, religious neutrality.Joe."

Well, if you look at recitation of the Pledge as a kind of indoctrination, you could view it as in part religious indoctrination ("under God" indoctrinates children with the idea that God exists and our Nation is subordinate to Him) and in part secular ideological indoctrination (the idea that America and its flag stand for one Nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all).

More broadly, every day public schools take positions on controversial issues and seek to inculcate impressionable children in certain so-called common beliefs and values--patriotism, celebrate diversity and multiculturalism, gay pride and gay rights, break down traditional gender roles by encouraging girls to strive for important careers, environmentalism, etc. Now I embrace many of these secular beliefs, but that does not change the fact that public schools are using governmental power to indoctrinate impressionable children in controversial ideological assertions.

If it is improper and unconstitutional for the public schools to coerce religious beliefs on impressionable children, why isn't equally improper and unconstitutional for the public schools to coerce impressionable children into adopting controversial secular beliefs and ideas?

From a religious liberty perspective, a strictly secular public school curriculum is neutral toward religion only in the sense that it marginalizes all religious perspectives about what is true, what is good, and what is lovely. As Michael McConnell has put it so eloquently: "A secular education does not necessarily produce atheists, but it produces young adults who inevitably think of religion as extraneous to the real world of intellectual inquiry, if they think of religion at all."

I would love to hear your thoughts about whether a government school monopoly is consistent with freedom of thought, freedom of belief, and freedom of intellectual inquiry.