Stelmach's bonehead decision panders to Conservative base

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Teachers, experts fear chill in classroom if Alberta legislation goes ahead

Alberta Talks is presenting the story another way:

Teachers will “be hauled in front of the Human Rights Commission”: Mason on Bill 44

The Alberta government is trying to pass a bill that will enshrine into law the right for parents to to pull their children out of classes discussing the topics of evolution and homosexuality.

If passed, the bill will require notifications to go out to parents before topics are discussed that include “subject-matter that deals explicitly with religion, sexuality or sexual orientation.”

New Democrat leader, Brian Mason, has been leading the charge against this bill. In Question period on Thursday he attacked the government saying, “not only does the government think it’s okay for children to be opted out of studying evolution in the classroom; it puts the onus on teachers to enforce it. If they don’t, they can be hauled in front of the Human Rights Commission. That is new. Why is this Premier planning to expose Alberta teachers to persecution for teaching evolution in schools?”

Res ipsa loquitur....

The religion part doesn't include evolution, except by the cock-eyed standards of the raving right, and sexuality comes into it only through reproductive success. So does this target evolution by defining it as religion?


OK. A government that thinks being exposed to the theory of evolution is a human rights violation doesn't even have a nodding acquaintance with sanity.

If the bill passes, can you suggest to teachers an easy way of sabotaging the bill? Mention evolution in every biology class. If parents want to pull their kids out of each of those classes, they'll be busy.

2 cents for the day

What, a parent wanting to have a say in what their child learns at a government run school. How dare they!

It's not like it's there child...no..wait a minute it is. It's not like the parents pay for any education...no...wait a minute...Govt. education is paid through taxes. It's not like school systems boot out kids that "don't want to learn..."...wait a minute...the school systems do just that.

Once again, policies and curriculums that push certain social agendas (such as teaching elementary school children homosexuality topics) continue to place a burden on the teachers while the education that the students receives, suffers. Why it is a topic I do not know, other than an effort to "inform" and "shape" minds when they are young. I'd prefer my son to get an education that will help him in the real world, not a 13 year lesson on PC thinking.

Now, if I could have only pulled my son out of his mandatory viewing of Al Gore's POS movie. I think his time could have been better spent. Luckily, the nightmares with polar bears is no more.

I don't have a problem with evolution being taught at public school, but I have a problem when this topic is being forced upon people that don't want it while weighing very little in the overall education system.

Now, my question is this? If a subject is being taught at a school, are students being tested on this subject? If yes, then the students that opt out of the lectures will no doubt have to be tested separately on a different test, since the subject matter is different. Now, if this bill is an attempt to complicate the teaching of these subjects so much that not teaching them is the only solution then I do not agree with their approach.

Have fun out there in Alberta <.< Starting to regret siding with the right-wing conservatives yet? ~­­­.~

No, because I never have and never will.

Premier Stelmach and his minions in particular
are the sorriest bunch of buffoons that ever
infested Alberta's provincial politics.

In addition to this new epic mess, there's the
promotional thing shot on a beach in Northumbria,
England.

Personally, Stelmach and his cronies can kiss
the devil's ....

I have a feeling, or merely hoping, it gets tabled in 2nd reading.

So, if I would follow a religion which sees bad spelling and wrong grammar as the most important mean for salvation I could take my children out of school for the English lessons?

Parents having their kids not participate in some class activities or discussions in the US worksout pretty well even when there is no law regarding it. If teachers there act anything like they do here, they will just let the kids go somewhere else without making a big deal out of it and going before some human rights commission. It won't be a problem to them.

There should be strict separation of State and School. Educating the children should be the burden of the parents and volunteering interested parties, not the State which is supported by taxes.

ruveyn

It is the duty of the state to ensure - against or with the consents of the parents - that children have the chance of public eduction. Thus, the children are not capable of making reasonable decision, the state has the duty and the right to impose mandatory public schooling for everyone. Education is much too important to leave it to private decisions.

It is a matter of the human rights of children - the parents are here of no importance at all.

But it is the parents' job to make decisions in the best interest of the child.

No one expects the Human Rights Commission!

\irony

All children should be educated in religious schools taught only in Aramaic, the only language Jesus spoke, all prayer should also be understandable. All books other than the Bible should be burned, and any book owners after that also burned.

It is the government's job to see to it that children are given a proper education, the parents' personal oppinions on what amounts to "relevant information" are irrelivant.
You can't let parents choose what their children are taught, as that only breeds more ignorance and restricts the children in their own choices later in life.