• News
• All

Saturday, September 6, 2008

The new Ethics course will keep students in the dark.

posted by Elsie Treize at 16h06

by Elspeth Dowell, mother, volunteer, Secular Humanist and Atheist.

When I first heard about the new Ethics and Religious Culture course for Quebec schools, I was pleasantly surprised. I spoke on the phone with someone at the English Montreal School Board and she sent me some on-line information about the course. The information clearly stated that some people get their values and morals from sources other than religion, and that this concept would be included in the new course.

Then in January 2007, I attended a Home & School meeting in St. Laurent. Over several months before that particular meeting, I asked to have some items placed on the agenda. I wanted to ask what the parents thought of the concepts of polytheism, monotheism and atheism being taught together. I also wanted to know, at what grade level the science of Darwin was being taught.

That January I was told that questions of religion and belief were not permitted at Home & School. So over the course of several weeks, I consulted the website of the Quebec Federation of Home & School Associations. There is nothing on the website stating that religion and belief is a taboo subject.
Regarding my Darwin question, the parents of our Home & School executive told me that they were not able to answer anything about curriculum. There were three administrators present when I asked that question. It would surely have been easy for one of them to answer. Administrators often respond to questions at Home & School meetings.
I felt as if Home & School and the administration were plotting against me, the 'nasty atheist.'

So I phoned the EMSB again, hoping for reassurance. This time I learned that one of the ideas behind Curriculum Reform is that students often choose their own topics for projects and essays. If the teacher gives the impression that living without religion is a silly idea, then it seems to me quite unlikely that a student will write about Humanism.

The ERC course has been in the news again recently, with the principal of Loyola High School stating that they don't want to teach this new program. I've just re-read an article by Julius Grey, "Une democratie totalitaire." (You can read it here:
http://www.canoe.com/infos/chroniques/juliusgrey/archives/2008/04/200804...
Scroll down to Tabous et Religions).
According to Grey, atheism will not be taught in the new course.
So it seems that Quebec students will not be receiving the enlightening news that 23 per cent of Canadians don't believe in any god.

As for me, I'm feeling marginalized, again.