By BJ Bjornson
At least according to the Government of Alberta.
Alberta legislators passed legislation early Tuesday that will give parents the option of pulling their children out of class when lessons on sex, religion or sexual orientation are being taught.
. . .
A clause in the bill, which is an amendment to the province's human rights legislation, requires that school boards give parents written notice when controversial topics are going to be covered in the curriculum. Parents can then ask for their child to be excluded from the discussion.
First, let me repeat what I said when this legislation was first introduced.
After all, we wouldn't want children to actually learn things while in school, would we? I mean, if they were to start acquiring knowledge, they may start questioning the silly superstitions and prejudices of their parents, and we can't have that.
Second, note that this is bill amends the province's human rights legislation, meaning teachers are going to face human rights complaints if they happen to put anything into their lesson plans that some nutjob decides is objectionable. That should really assist the curriculum, shouldn't it? And what does this do to testing? Is it now going to be possible to pass high school biology without ever having even heard of evolution, let alone been tested on its basics?
And I can't help but love the defense one of the Conservative MP's came up with during the legislative debate:
"There are thousands and thousands of parents, the silent majority, severely normal Albertans that are extremely happy with this legislation, that believe it's right to affirm the right of parents as being the primary educators of their children on these subjects," Anderson said during the debate.
"Severely normal"? When have you ever heard of a group of people being described as severely normal? Do you get the impression that Mr. Anderson has a very strict and narrow definition of what constitutes, "normal"? And that his hope is that this kind of legislation helps ensure that the next generation of Albertans don't learn enough while they're in school to deviate from that definition?
All I can say is that I can't help but feel sorry for the youth of Alberta, who are now going to have a big asterisk attached to their educational achievements.
I was thinking that those parents are guaranteeing their kids hear about. The kids that were not allowed into sex ed when I was a kid were the same ones waiting to hear all about it from those of us forced to watch those awful movies.
ReplyDeleteAs an atheist and firm believer in scientific principle and inquiry I suppose that I should be on the side of those who feel disdain for this piece of legislation. Yet I do not. The reason is simple: I do not think it is anyone's place to tell me what to think nor do I feel it right to compel others to think or believe as I do. I doubt that any teacher acting in good faith would be subject to sanctions for teaching any particular subject. I don't know about Alberta but in Ontario evolution was never part of the biology curriculum when I studied that subject. In any event any parent who felt significant parts of the curriculum were unfit for their child could certainly home school them or send them to a denominational school.
ReplyDeleteThe only real objection I see to this is that children may be singled out by their classmates with the usual result. This is one of the reasons that prayer is banned in American schools is it not. Non-participants in school prayer may be ridiculed by their classmates.
evolution was never part of the biology curriculum when I studied that subject.
ReplyDeleteSeriously? I admit I went hard over to Physics and Chemistry and dropped biology completely as soon as I had the chance, but how the hell did you miss evolution entirely? My sister teaches science here, based upon the Alberta curriculum and evolution is there, as is certain aspects of geology that some fundamentalists wouldn't like. Really, there are all sorts of things in science that would run afoul of the creation myths.
I doubt that any teacher acting in good faith would be subject to sanctions
Unfortunately, what you or I term, "good faith", doesn't apply to a disturbingly large number of people. I'd very much prefer the law be on the teacher's side and not on theirs.
There is a reason that Stockwell felt so so happy in Red Dear - I know he's moved on to infect the interior of B.C. - and I've always suspected that Stelmach thinks he was found out in the cabbage patch at the back of his parents place. Alberta Canada's joke place aka Texas or Oklahoma north with the funny big hats to boot.
ReplyDeleteTrust me on this BJ, evolution simply was not covered in the biology courses I took in high school and I did the full spectrum of maths and sciences. I don't think I was much deprived however. I'd already read an abridged version of the Origin of Species by grade ten and my grade twelve science report was on Dobzhansky's Mankind Evolving. I still consider that one of the finest books I have ever read. Evolution is certainly central to any understanding of biology or paleontology or genetics even geology but high school biology courses are largely survey courses. The grade thirteen course (yes we had five years of high school) had much to cover on the work of Watson and Crick, Mendel and Linnaeus and wasn't at all bashful about covering human reproductive biology. I don't recall any particular controversy being attached to evolution. In fact I once posted a parody from National Lampoon called Popular Evolution on the class cork board that had every single biology teacher in stitches.
ReplyDeleteA clause in the bill, which is an amendment to the province's human rights legislation, requires that school boards give parents written notice when controversial topics are going to be covered in the curriculum. Parents can then ask for their child to be excluded from the discussion.
ReplyDeleteYeah I suspect we need legislation for parents who feel strong enough about a topic to known when its on the curriculum of their child.... after a written notification!
God forbid parents would actually have to know what is being taught at their children's school.
asdf, no question parents should be paying some attention to what is being taught. Even better would be to sit some of them down in the classes themselves in the hopes that some of the learning would sink in.
ReplyDeletePeter, I won't doubt you, though I'm now beginning to wonder about Ontario's school system. In any case, I can confirm that evolution is taught in Alberta and Saskatchewan, at least as early as grade 9.
The sad part of this all is that Alberta probably has some of the finest schools in the country, and only very few parents are likely to take advantage of these exemptions, (I'm just happy they're not available in SK, since I wouldn't put it past my older sister to do so), but their existence is going to reflect badly on the entire system.