How do you make choices for your childrens education and futures?
Kids by definition require parents to take responsibility for choices among other things.
If kids are to make their own choices - they are not kids anymore.
Of course I taught my child to read and write. Beyond that, I am not forcing them to get up at 7am and memorize what other adults want them to all day every day. My child can learn about whatever interests him. I pay attention to what he is doing and provide advice, guidance, resources.
For example, if tomorrow I learn that my son has taken an interest in playing guitar, I will encourage him to take lessons, and provide what he needs to do that. I may expose him to music theory or other things I think align with his interests.
I will try and encourage him to cultivate skills and interests, but it is up to him what he wants to do.
From what age onwards? And what should they do for choices before that age?
That said... I want a school with a reasonably good rating (indicating that other kids/parents care), that is safe (again, tied to general parental oversight of their kids), not overbearing by having well thoughtout policies (for example, blacklist foods in the classroom where people are seriously allergic to it as opposed to having a whitelist of approved snacks that exclude entire groups of food), is more about education than indoctrination, and has an overall environment that will facilitate learning (very open ended and subjective).
The most common story I hear is of parents who get a lot of information and try to make a good choice, but ultimately get overwhelmed and choose 'at random' from what's available.
