Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government has pushed an equity and inclusivity initiative on all Ontario publicly funded schools, which has Christian groups and concerned parents worried about the ability of Catholic schools to remain faithful to the teachings of the church. Those concerns were proven correct, says Campaign Life Catholics, when the government introduced Bill 13, an anti-bullying bill entitled The Accepting [...]
On Dec 6., the Institute for Canadian Values held a press conference at Queen’s Park condemning the Liberal government’s anti-bullying legislation as a violation of the religious rights of denominational schools, a threat against religious freedom, and an assault on the rights of parents to be the primary educators of their children. Dr. Charles McVety of Canada Christian College, Jack Fonseca [...]
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) released a report on the state of freedom at universities across the country and found that many fail to promote and protect free speech, especially when it comes to the rights of pro-life groups on campus. The JCCF’s 2011 Campus Freedom Index rated 18 public universities and their student unions in terms of their commitment [...]
On Nov. 30, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty introduced Bill 13, The Accepting Schools Act. This arrived on the heels of a tragic and much-publicized suicide involving Ottawa teenager, Jamie Hubley. The teen suffered with depression and happened to also be openly gay. The media dutifully painted the picture that Hubley committed suicide primarily due to “homophobic bullying” despite the fact his father [...]
Parents concerned over the radical direction the Burnaby School District has been taking were encouraged by the Nov. 19 school board election results, even though none of their five nominees made the final cut for the position of school board trustee. “Burnaby voters have stated loud and clear that they need Burnaby Parents’ Voice on the scene to bring forward policy and [...]
As originally conceived by Egerton Ryerson, chief superintendent of education for Upper Canada from 1844 to 1876, the publicly funded schools of English-speaking Canada – Protestant, Catholic and secular – were outstanding. But do these schools still provide a suitable education for most Canadian children? Most definitely not. Over the past 50 years, Canada’s publicly funded schools have succumbed to a [...]
A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from someone named Chris Topple. He described himself as being a fairly typical Canadian. He lives in Oshawa, Ont. He said he wanted to tell me about his experience, and that of his four-year-old granddaughter. He wrote that she came home from junior kindergarten in her public school with a book in her [...]
Ontario’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy (EIE) is meant to shape the entire educational system. Last month we showed how EIE disregards children’s social and emotional needs. This month’s critique continues with the some of the strategy’s implications for moral and spiritual development. Jesus told us how carefully we are to guard the purity of growing children. “He said to His disciples, [...]
Ontario’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy (EIE) pushes aside child development norms in favour of an ideologically driven model of morally relativist gender-neutral citizenship. At a Pride Toronto reception on July 1, Premier Dalton McGuinty demonstrated his ongoing commitment to that mindset. He announced that the province will require that all its publicly funded schools – elementary or secondary – allow [...]
Under intense public pressure, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty may have withdrawn his government’s revised curriculum guidelines on sexual education for a “serious rethink,” but this battle is far from over. Proponents of ever more explicit sexual education for young school children have been quick to mount a concerted counterattack. They commend the revised curriculum for proposing to normalize homosexuality in [...]
What is education for? The development of character? Or the acquisition of a marketable skill? These are not new questions. In “Against the Sophists,” the ancient Greek philosopher Isocrates argued that character should be king in education. Isocrates believed that education is primarily about the development of the learner’s character. Isocrates did not oppose the development of technical skill. But he argued [...]
Kitchener school board situation serves as a sterling example The elevation of an “open mind” to the status of an unchallengeable moral principle is, as a matter of plain fact, a perfect example of being closed-minded. Professor Allan Bloom made this point in his best-selling critique of higher education, The Closing of the American Mind, a book that offended a legion of [...]
This paper supports the right of parents to educate their own children as they see fit. Whether it is choosing the best government-funded school for their children within the public or separate school system, sending them to independent religious schools or educating their children themselves at home, such decisions are best made by parents. We also understand that whatever constitutional guarantees there [...]
National Affairs Rory Leishman In a 19th-century classic, the eminent philosopher John Stuart Mill admonished parents not to hand over the education of their children to the state. He warned: “A general state education is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another and as the mould in which it casts them is that which pleases [...]