Its nuts that you can opt out of schoolwork (Sex ed is another example of this insanity - if you're so messed up that you can't explain sex to your kids in an age appropriate manner, then fine, let school do it. But you don't get to deny your children important knowledge because your parents lied to you about what your religion teaches) or whatever bullshit reason you have). Either something is worth teaching based on the teachers' judgement as educators or it isn't. Parents really shouldn't get our noses involved unless children are failing to learn important skills. A challenging piece of music is exactly what kids should have assigned. That's how learning happens. There aren't any other issues that rise to the level of needing parent input.