I know enough people thrown out of their home for being gay that I hesitate on the idea that the parents are the most trusted (which is why I like the way you phrase it — more trusted). There are a lot of cooperating and competing interests at play, which is how it should be.

> Their own interests should be paramount

There’s a limit, though. If we followed this to it’s logical conclusion then vocational training in schools would be limited to firefighting and pilot training.

At a certain point kids can’t lead you in the right direction because they don’t know where they’re going yet. Guidance is in their interest even if it goes against their desire at that point in time.

> Not those of the community, the state

But most kids have their education free at the point of delivery, paid for by the community and state. So it’s inevitable they have a say in things. If you don’t want that then homeschooling or private schooling is a viable option.

Their interests are best served by becoming educated productive members of society.

This feel good, utopia, idea that children have no need to be concerned with learning a skill set, or learning how to be productive members of society (which yes means often working for companies) is part of the moronic political drivel that "education reformers" and teachers unions are pushing that are causing the American schooling system to fall behind the rest of the world.

Lets start teaching hard science, math, etc. Lets start grading with red ink again, and Lets stop with the participation trophies and the like