Maybe it will stick into adulthood and maybe it won't. The point is, you're the parent and you get to choose what religion, if any, your children are exposed to. Moral and/or religious instruction is part of your duty as a parent.

Unfortunately, there are some people out there who don't trust your ability to make that choice. You might choose the wrong thing! You might decide to raise your children as moderate/liberal Christians, as Unitarians, as Buddhists or in no religion at all when what you should have done was raise them as fundamentalist Christians.

The Washington Post yesterday ran an enlightening, but infuriating, story, about a group called Christian Educators Association International (CEAI). I was familiar with this group, which has been knocking around for years complaining about our "godless" public schools (which many of its members are only too happy to draw a salary from). The organization is not huge, but it's pretty active. It consists of public school teachers who believe they have the right to preach to other people's kids.

Some of what these teachers do isn't a problem. They might pray for their students while at a church service. No problem there. But others are determined to push the envelope. They play Christian music in classrooms and leave Bibles on their desks. Their hope is that a curious student will ask about the teacher's faith, and then it's off to the races.

These teachers seem to be operating under the delusion that if a student initiates the conversation, it's OK to start proselytizing. No court has ever blessed that sort of thing. Just the opposite is true. Courts have been very careful to keep coercive forms of religion out of public schools. Teachers who won't stop preaching can and should be fired.

Katherine Stewart, author of an eye-opening book titled The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children was contacted by The Post and asked to comment on CEAI's activities.

Stewart nailed it when she said, "What this really amounts to is a privileging of the majority. If a Wiccan, Muslim or Satanist public school teacher were to try to put their sacred texts on their desk ... they would likely be shut down."

Yes, they would. Immediately.

There's another aspect of this that shouldn't be overlooked: These people are incredibly arrogant. They believe that the decision you made for your children is wrong. You didn't choose to raise them as fundamentalist Christians. They believe, therefore, that they have a right - indeed a duty - to correct your "mistake."

These teacher-preachers believe that they know better than you what's best for your children. The fact that the theological system they would seek to immerse your children in often exalts ignorance and regressive thinking - "creation science," biblical literalism, anti-gay views, anti-feminist views, etc. - is bad enough. That they would dare to abuse their taxpayer-funded positions in a government job to lure impressionable youngsters into their faith against the wishes of the parents who pay their salaries is unconscionable.

Thankfully, there's a remedy for arrogant teachers whose classroom proselytism leads them to usurp parental rights: hand them a pink slip.