Religious restrictions

A newly-created parent’s group wants access to lesson plans in advance of their children’s classes — an unreasonable request because of their hate-fuelled rationale.

The request was recently delivered by the Parental Rights in Education Defense Fund, a religious advocacy group which claims to represent a beleaguered parent. It’s taking the Ontario school system to court over this issue, with ludicrously wasteful legal fees estimated to be anywhere from $30,000 to $200,000.

Knowing what teachers plan on teaching in advance isn’t an outrageous demand. It’s fair for parents to have an idea of what their kids will be learning.

However, this particular group’s request is based on hateful, homophobic premises. They want to be alerted of the teacher’s lesson plans in the case that their child will be taught about gay rights or LGBTQ issues so that they can pull them out of class in advance or warn their kids about what they are about to be taught.

They argue that, by placing these sorts of issues on their curriculum, Ontario school boards are being disrespectful to those of a Judeo-Christian faith.

This is wrong. The school system is merely educating students about one aspect of Canadian society.

In teaching children about LGBTQ issues, the system encourages understanding and respect for many cultures, religions and identities in our society, lessons which encourage the appreciation of everyone’s differences are a positive way forward.

Last year, the Toronto District School Board took a positive step in releasing an anti-homophobia curriculum guide which advised teachers not to notify parents as to whether they’d be discussing gender discrimination or homophobia. By pulling their children out of these lessons, parents will be stunting their children’s understanding of the very society they live in.

Especially in Canadian public schools, students will inevitably come from different backgrounds. Our education system shouldn’t teach students to be further divided amongst themselves. It should teach students about the human rights of others.

Teachers who make a point to include messages of inclusion in their lesson plans aren’t brainwashing kids to hate the Bible, or teaching them to disrespect people of a certain faith. Christians have just as much room in society to share their beliefs – why should a small group of them deny others the right to do the same?

The premise of this Defense Fund will inevitably breed further ignorance.

For this reason, the lawsuit is ultimately a waste of money and a waste of time.

—Journal Editorial Board

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Education

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