I am an atheist parent.

I am also a medical practitioner, as is my wife.

She attended a private Christian school for her entire education, and is now an atheist. At her school they had an atheist communist history teacher who was extremely intelligent (a winner of mastermind) who had some influence on my wife.

We have one son. He inherited our obsessive trait, and of course passed through the phase of hypochondriasis.

From year 5 he attended a private Christian School. We tried the public school system but when he entered year five, the only male teacher in the school was driven out. He then re-experienced his second year teacher who proceeded to repeat everything the class had learned the previous year. The kids became bored, school counsellors were brought in, the boys were forced to remain indoors after lunch for quiet time to maximise their compliance. These kids were the intelligent children of the local middle class in a rural town. The teaching error was discovered in October, but by then virtually every parent had been compelled to withdraw the child from the school and enrol them elsewhere. The new local Christian college benefited greatly, but a large cohort of bright kids was saved from being labelled as sociopathic. My son now has a BSc Hon & MCom, and works for a large international Bank. All the other disruptive children have completed various University degrees and have well established stable careers.

What happened to the teacher, and the school administration - nothing. I do not know if they have continued their inept crushing of intelligent children but I suspect they have.

So my poor son with his atheist parents had to face Christianity. He asked to attend Sunday School - we dutifully drove him; He participated in various religious festivals. Unlike fundamentalists Anglicans have tended to promote intellectual development. The old joke about bishops in the Anglican church being half atheists if partly true.

When my son was about 12, he managed to catch me for a heart to heart ( I was working 110 hrs per week as a rural doctor). He asked if he should believe in god. My response was that that was a decision no one could dictate to him, he had to work it out for himself. I had no objections if he wished to become an active Christian because that was ultimately his personal decision, and as parents it was our role to support him in making his own life choices but we expected him to remain a humanitarian.

He remained in Christian education throughout high school, did not have a gap year, and entered University where he was exposed to all the wonderful diversity of beliefs expressed by intelligent and articulate people. He specialised in geography. Like most University graduates in Australia he was unable to find a job for his new skills, and drifted into the finance industry where he has remained.

He has two children. We offered to pay for them to attend private (Christian) schools, but he and his ex-Catholic partner have decided to try the public system which I think is marvellous.

- Piebald Skeptic