Faith and School
Hello everyone!
I hope you found my last post on the First Nation Metis and Inuit people engaging and eye-opening. This week we had a wonderful debate in class regarding the Catholic School Board vs the Public School Board and whether or not the school boards should be amalgamated or not.
Now if you do not know anything about the school system in Canada, we have two school boards. One is the Catholic School Board and the other is the Public School Board. Both school boards are funded by the general public and because of this, a serious debate arose in our classroom. The first was why Catholicism is the only faith to have its own state-funded schools, while other religions are not granted this freedom such as the Jewish community, Islamic community, and so on. To answer this, we need to look back to the founding of Canada with the British North America Act of 1867. The Catholic minority played an integral part in confederation and the establishment of the country Canada. One of the requirements for them to accept confederation was their right to educate their children in Catholic schools, and that it would be protected by government legislature. If you would like to learn more about Catholic schools and its origins, more information can be found here.
While Catholic elementary schools are only accepting students whose one parent is Catholic, Catholic high schools are open to people of all faith with the exception that students have to take religion all four years of high school. Although this has been the standard for many years, the tide seems to be changing and the divide is beginning to blur.
A Grade 11 student named Jonathan Erazo is not Roman Catholic but has attended Brampton's Notre Dame Catholic School because of his father, Oliver Erazo, felt it was the best school close to their home. In Grade 10, Jonathan asked to be excused from religious classes, and after refusing at first, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board eventually agreed because Ontario's Education Act excuses non-Catholic high school students from "any program or course of study in religious education" if their parent asks in writing. Furthermore, Jonathan Erazo wanted to be excused from five or six church services and a religious trip each year, the school board said no and he was immediately shut down. This is when Oliver Erazo took it to the courts and won since Ontario Superior Court Justice Ted Matlow proclaimed
First, there is the issue of minority rights. In Ontario, we are a religiously pluralistic society. Catholics are the largest group at 35 percent. But what of the rights of the remaining 65 percent of the population, made up of Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, other faiths and non-believers?
References:
Brown, Louise. (2014, August 9.) Ontario Catholic elementary schools quietly admitting students of all faiths. The Star. Retrieved from: www.thestar.com
Brown, Louise. (2014, April 8.) Catholic schools can't force students to attend mass, court rules. The Hamilton Spectator. Retrieved from: www.thespec.com
Zwibel, Cara. Faith in the Public School System: Principles for Reconciliation.
I hope you found my last post on the First Nation Metis and Inuit people engaging and eye-opening. This week we had a wonderful debate in class regarding the Catholic School Board vs the Public School Board and whether or not the school boards should be amalgamated or not.
Now if you do not know anything about the school system in Canada, we have two school boards. One is the Catholic School Board and the other is the Public School Board. Both school boards are funded by the general public and because of this, a serious debate arose in our classroom. The first was why Catholicism is the only faith to have its own state-funded schools, while other religions are not granted this freedom such as the Jewish community, Islamic community, and so on. To answer this, we need to look back to the founding of Canada with the British North America Act of 1867. The Catholic minority played an integral part in confederation and the establishment of the country Canada. One of the requirements for them to accept confederation was their right to educate their children in Catholic schools, and that it would be protected by government legislature. If you would like to learn more about Catholic schools and its origins, more information can be found here.
While Catholic elementary schools are only accepting students whose one parent is Catholic, Catholic high schools are open to people of all faith with the exception that students have to take religion all four years of high school. Although this has been the standard for many years, the tide seems to be changing and the divide is beginning to blur.
A Grade 11 student named Jonathan Erazo is not Roman Catholic but has attended Brampton's Notre Dame Catholic School because of his father, Oliver Erazo, felt it was the best school close to their home. In Grade 10, Jonathan asked to be excused from religious classes, and after refusing at first, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board eventually agreed because Ontario's Education Act excuses non-Catholic high school students from "any program or course of study in religious education" if their parent asks in writing. Furthermore, Jonathan Erazo wanted to be excused from five or six church services and a religious trip each year, the school board said no and he was immediately shut down. This is when Oliver Erazo took it to the courts and won since Ontario Superior Court Justice Ted Matlow proclaimed
"No Catholic school system that is required by law to admit non-Catholic students should have the right to require participation in such activities (liturgies and retreats)...In my view, the liturgies and retreats … have as their central purpose the provision of religious experiences and education to the students who attend them."On top of this, the Catholic elementary schools are facing serious enrollment issues in the last couple years, and as a result are quietly opening their doors to people of all faith, blurring the line even more. Windsor's Catholic School board admitted 82 non-Catholics into their elementary school discreetly, and more than half of Ontario's 29 Catholic boards now quietly admit non-Catholic children to grade school although boards in the GTA still abide by the requirements. So the real question is, why even have two separate school boards? On one side you have the constitutional right and the status quo for keeping the two boards. On the other, you have the fight for amalgamation.
Amalgamation
First, there is the issue of minority rights. In Ontario, we are a religiously pluralistic society. Catholics are the largest group at 35 percent. But what of the rights of the remaining 65 percent of the population, made up of Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, other faiths and non-believers?
Second, there would be major financial benefits to amalgamation since the taxpayers would not have to pay the hefty salaries of the director of education, the vice director of education, the superintendents and the trustees twice due to having two school boards. Furthermore, the idea of inclusion is stressed a lot in modern society because it makes students feel a part of the team and valuable, yet by having a separate school board for only Catholics this goes against the idea of inclusivity because it follows the notion of Catholics vs. everyone else since elementary schools can reject someone solely based on someone's faith. Lastly, even the United Nations Human Rights Committee has deemed the Ontario school system as discriminatory since it funds Catholic schools and nobody else in 1999.
While this debate can go on forever, it is important to note that I did come from the Catholic background school system which incorporates the gospel values in its daily routine. Although I am a supporter of the Catholic faith, it does seem unfair that just because I am Catholic I have double the opportunity for a job as a teacher because I can apply to both school boards, while my non-Catholic colleagues cannot.
Regardless of the school board I choose to work in, as a future educator that stresses inclusivity I plan to be a teacher that will respect my students regardless of the faith they support. In order to do this, I plan to follow Cara Faith Zwibel's guidelines for religious issues:
- Guarding against religious indoctrination/coercion by not enforcing my religious views onto anyone else
- Accommodating religious practices/beliefs without endorsing or sanctioning any in particular or favouring some over others
- Promoting societal goals such as tolerance and respect, equality (including gender equality), and the prevention of discrimination against marginalised groups
- Providing educational opportunities that arise in different accommodation contexts to my students
- Respecting the rights of the child and the rights that the students have to their own education.
References:
Brown, Louise. (2014, August 9.) Ontario Catholic elementary schools quietly admitting students of all faiths. The Star. Retrieved from: www.thestar.com
Brown, Louise. (2014, April 8.) Catholic schools can't force students to attend mass, court rules. The Hamilton Spectator. Retrieved from: www.thespec.com
Zwibel, Cara. Faith in the Public School System: Principles for Reconciliation.
Comments
Post a Comment