The province of Quebec (in Canada) has begun requiring all grade 1 through 11 students to take classes that teach various ethical and religious systems.
Some traditional Catholic parents have tried to keep their kids out but the school boards have turned down their requests.
Marc-André Richard said the school board has just started a war with parents like himself.
He said he is worried that if his kids learn about other religions on top of Catholicism, they will become confused by too many choices. [emphasis added]
M. Richard is going to keep his kids home for these classes even if it means they fail.
As much as I want to respect the rights of parents to raise their children how they want, this crosses a line. To say “I don’t want my son/daughter knowing that some people think differently than us” is utterly absurd! If your religion is logically coherent, or at least ingrained enough in your child’s head, then the child should be able to survive a provincial religious education course.
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The only ways to make it fair for all is to either teach all religion or none at all.
They’re requiring children to take a religious ethics course and a religious ethics course only…no secular ethics course. This will only further inculcate the flimsy argument that ethics are derived from religion. Ugh.
I was a student in Quebec back in the 90’s. At the time I attended elementary school part of the Commission des Ecoles Catholiques de Montreal (CECM) before it became a CSDM (Commision Scholaire de Montreal). I think it was the major school commission in Montreal. I don’t particularly remember it being catholic at all, but as a matter of fact there was a religion course but that was for Catholics, and since I wasn’t a Catholic I was able to go to Classe de Morale, where they taught morals and ethics in secular way.
Yes! OMG! I also did attend school in Montreal when it was called the CECM, and there was nothing at all religious about my schools. I’ve actually been to 4 different schools while i lived in Montreal, and none expelled any religious sentiment. From my understanding, it was simply called CECM because that what it was originally called and not because it was Catholic. But when i was younger i always thought it was weird. It’s Much like the YMCA.
They will become confused with too many choices…. Right. Cause we all know that there should be only ONE choice. Insert parents’ religion here.
actually according to their website, their elementary programming does include “des enseignment morale” or simply morals in English, along with Catholic and Protestant morals. Their high school courses offer the same thing.
I for one agree with the parents: there’s no need to bog them down with so many options — Catholicism is plenty confusing all by itself!
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yay! let’s hide the truth from our children. what a great way to advance as a society. yay!
I’m not sure I like the idea of an ethics education course taught in school in the first place, unless it’s extremely based in open-ended discussion. You’re bound to leave something out, have the teacher’s personal opinions creep in too much, etc. etc.
If you’re going to have it, though — it’s very telling for Catholic parents to be trying to shield their children from learning about alternatives. If you have a superior belief system, it should be easy to see, or at least to understand an explanation of, why why it’s superior to others. The fact that they’re worried about alternatives to their beliefs even being mentioned (not advocated) shows how little faith they really have in it.