This is a brief excerpt from my report on a related topic:

In school we are not taught to think for ourselves. We are taught to read what is in a textbook and to listen to the teacher. That teacher may very well have learned the subject from an earlier version of the same textbook or from one with similar ideas. The agency that decides which textbooks are approved is made up of a few people, not elected but rather hired. The job of this small panel of "experts" is to select the thoughts and ideas that all children in our country should be taught.

From the beginning of our schooling we are taught to trust that the textbooks and the teachers are telling us the Truth. We are not tested on the merits of our reasoning on a subject. We are not tested on individual research into a subject. We are tested on how much our reasoning and beliefs align with the textbook or the teacher. If our beliefs do not represent as congruent to the “approved” beliefs, we don’t pass school.

So what do you teach your children? To think for themselves. Teach them to think critically. Teach them to use discernment. Teach them to engage in debate not to win, but to get closer to the truth with the efforts of many minds seeking it in earnest. Teach them the stories, and let them do their own research into history.

If you want to teach them history, teach them how to do research. Teach them that the truth is whatever the truth is, and that some people have told a story that may or may not have any elements of truth in it. Teach them to never stop looking for the truth on any subject, and to never assume that they have captured the totality of it.

Insanity is not believing something that no one else believes, but rather it is holding on to your beliefs so strongly, needing them to be true so badly, that you are incapable of seeing evidence to the contrary. The number of people that share your beliefs is irrelevant to truth or what is "sane".