I suppose I’m old-fashioned. I thought teachers were supposed to teach, to make sure young people could read and write, do math, know some history and geography, perhaps some economics, and certainly some science. I don’t think media studies is a real subject, and sociology should only be a graduate level course. But this is nothing compared to what is going on today in many school boards, where legions of toxins are being injected into the bloodstream of the body politic; and in particular we need to monitor the Toronto District School Board’s obvious and sinister war against the family.
Some of you may remember the board’s trash publication entitled Challenging Homophobia and Heterosexism, which I and others wrote about earlier this year. Well, it gets even worse. The board has now posed the rhetorical question – “Should Schools Send Notes Or Permission Slips Home Before Starting Any Classroom Work About Curricular Issues That May Involve Discussions About Discrimination and Harassment?” Don’t forget, this is very extreme and incredibly one-sided stuff, and parents are the ones who raise children. For goodness sake, they are the parents and these are their children.
The answer, however, is chilling. “No. The TDSB Equity Foundation Statement and Commitments to Equity Policy Implementation states that each school has a responsibly to education that reflects the diversity of its students and their life experiences. Singling out one group or topic area as too controversial, and depending upon parent/guardian/caregiver discretion, shifts this responsibility from the school to the parents/ guardians/caregivers and fosters a poisoned environment contrary to the TDSB Human Rights Policy.”
So, there we have it. The board then demonstrates an utter contempt for mothers and fathers – they’re not caregivers – that is positively breathtaking. “What Is Gender Equity Education? The TDSB is committed to supporting all students. Studies show that families begin to treat their children differently, based on gender, almost from the moment of birth. Educators are influential through their approach toward raising students’ awareness of gender stereotypes and barriers at a very early stage in children’s education. Together, educators and students can move from awareness to understanding, and from understanding to eliminating gender barriers wherever they may be found.”
And the barriers, that are apparently causing so much pain and destruction, and lead to war and tears and, for all we know, bad food and even, God forbid, missed episodes of Modern Family and Glee, are to be found in – yes, you guessed it – the family. The family, those poor fools who are paying such high taxes so that empty-headed extremists can try to indoctrinate their children with vile and bitter propaganda. “Gender is a primary regulator of classroom social interactions. Children actively take up what they have learned about gender roles from parents/guardians/caregivers, television, religion, etc., and use this often contradictory information to control each other’s behaviours.”
Did you also notice the other repugnant influences? Religion of course. Mum, dad, and church are bad; radical homosexual nut bars and their extremism are all good. It’s self-evident that there are myriad good teachers, and many good schools. But good teachers and good schools will always exist, whatever the system, and what we now know is that it is this particular system – the public one – that is the root of the problem.
The answer is radical but simple. Scrap public education. Give the money back to the parents and to the taxpayers, and let them decide where they want to send their children. If there is enough support for a gender free, sexually manipulative circus high school, then so be it. If these schools, or gay schools, black schools, fat schools, attract enough support, they should be allowed to exist and even flourish. But we know they won’t. The ones that will succeed and grow will be those that insist on firm, traditional, and orthodox values and virtues, and it is this that so terrifies radical teachers and their socialist union leaders.
They’re our children, not theirs; it’s our money, not theirs; they’re our schools, not theirs. I am utterly convinced that it is too late to take back the public system – in its secular or Roman Catholic form – and the only way forward is to allow some fort of charter system where we give freedom to choose and freedom to learn. I am, I suppose, pro-choice. Isn’t that a good thing?
Michael Coren’s new book is Heresy: Ten Lies They Spread about Christianity. He can be booked for speeches at www.michaelcoren.com.