Rick- you've made an interesting point, a whole topic evolving from the discussion on evolution :) Take my word on it hon, you will recover from the System :). You sort of touched a nerve- and being that its a loaded issue i am not sure how to address it. Still, being that most of us are in a limenal state- suspended somewhere between the roles of student and teacher (or in both) it's a safe zone to offer some healthy critique...so here it goes :) I agree with you that by repressing whole controversial issues teachers acknowledge their obvious ignorance; consciously telling their pupils that they lack the appropriate answers to their very real questions. Tools of manipulation, inspired by this fear and discomfort, used to harness the greater quest for learning is shameful indeed. To place the curious mind in a rigorous steel-braced corset of desensitization (with out valid reason) is in fact the anti-thesis of education. Boundaries are necessary, as law is the axis upon with society functions- but how do we interpet these limitations? how do we create them? in moral terms? in religious context? or in a warped social hierarchy? and what of those artistically gifted youths that do not follow in the average vein of convention? do we willingly let their G-d given creativity rot in the gutter because the white-hot force makes us uneasy? What of the students, as you stated Rick, that mentally Google'd 'evolution' the moment they were told to rip in out of their textbooks? My personal teaching philosophy is to emit inspiration and then information. In my limited experience i have found that if the young mind is healthily exercised and challenged it will recognize the open-endedness of the topic and voluntarily revisit the subject. Judaism is a faith that demands scholarship, and what is Chassidut if not the philosophy of the question? Teachers should not stifle but guide- presenting an enticing ripe green apple that grows somewhere between knowing and not quite knowing... the school's mission statement should be to teach how to think not how to memorize. If community teachers claim to hold Truth. they needn't fear fallacious theories, because if fact by their dismissal they give it credence. Today, the teachers of tomorrow must ask themselves do we wish to perpetuate a self-desctructive convention or perpetuate a rich culture in its organic depth? do we feel that we can monopolize faith and insure a single interpetation- when in fact we should encourage our students to discover a meaningful and personal G-d within custom? I am not saying that we should allow a fragmentation of faith, but see it all- in all its beautiful color, sound and flavour...
It is the teacher that holds the flame in the confusion of youth. it is knowledge that brings not clarity but the definition to life. How one emerges from that troubling darkness is directly affected by his teachers. We must acquire our hate and appreciation, be taught to fear and judge. Richard Wilbur has a great poem that emphasizes this point:

The warped night air having brought the boom
Of an owl's voice in her darkened room,
We tell the wakened child that all she heard
Was an odd question from a forest bird,
Asking of us, if rightly listened to,
"Who cooks for you?" and then "Who cooks for you?"

Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,
Can also thus domesticate a fear,
And send a small child back to sleep at night
Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight
Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw
Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.

After that point we must will ourselves to study- mandate our own education and seize control of what we are to become. as i told you, this is a subject that hits home- i hope that you've made it to here- i did not mean to go into lecture mode (blogs make me ramble:) still i hope the issue was presented adquately- i earnestly await your responses :)