Citizen Columns
Citizen Columns >> Answer (November 4th, 2006)
Question
How should religiously-slanted theories such as
creationism be handled in public schools?
Answer
I believe that public school teaching in every area of study should be
developed according to the best knowledge scholars in that field can agree
upon today. But there are big philosophical, ethical and theological
questions inherent in every subject as well and it does a disservice to
students to shut these off from their education. Why shouldn't students
learn that there are a wide range of ultimate questions that people approach
in a multiplicity of ways both secular and religious as they consider the
facts and meaning of human experience? Some parents and students will be
challenged, shaken or offended. Some may withdraw their children from such
classes. But most students, I suspect, will find this kind of education
intellectually and spiritually invigorating.
I am concerned that religious options - and debates on such views - are being
squeezed out of public education, while secularist worldviews are
increasingly given free rein in the classroom. In BC for example, public
education is by law to be carried out on "strictly secular and non-sectarian
principles." This would presumably exclude the opinions of those who write
for this page. And yet it would promote the views of a gay couple, who in a
court challenge sought "fair and appropriate reflection of non-heterosexual
realities in the curriculum." They have now been given the right to revise
BC's K-12 curriculum on sexuality so that it includes "queer history and
historical figures, the presence of positive queer role models - past and
present - the contributions made by queers to various epochs, societies and
civilizations and legal issues relating to [lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgendered] people, same-sex marriage and adoption".
Is there not a case of discrimination to be made on behalf of religious
parents and children who claim that their life stance is being trampled by
an allegedly neutral public school system? Isn't it right to also seek fair
and appropriate reflection on non-secular realities in the curriculum?
Father John Jillions
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