Posted on 10/26/2017 6:30:07 PM PDT by markomalley
The Alberta government says it is “unacceptable” for Catholic schools to uphold Church teaching on sexuality in school curriculum.
Media in Alberta reported this week that the Council of Catholic School Superintendents of Alberta had said curriculum promoting the homosexual “lifestyle,” masturbation, anal and oral sex, or transgenderism would be problematic if required by the impending K-12 health and wellness curriculum.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has criticized the Catholic schools and insisted their proposed program will never be taught if its final form is as it has been advertised.
“Under no circumstances will we enforce or condone a sexual health curriculum that normalizes an absence of consent, refuses to talk about contraception and other things that protect the health of sexually active young people, or in any way marginalizes sexual minorities. That's not on,” she told the Canadian Press.
Jason Kenney, a Catholic pro-life candidate for the United Conservative Party’s leadership, says Notley has no right to tell Catholic educators how to teach Catholic values.
"It's not for me or the premier to dictate to the Catholic education system how it teaches Catholic values," said Kenney, whose leadership bid has been endorsed by the national pro-life group Campaign Life Coalition.
"The whole point of the Catholic education system is to be Catholic," he said.
Pushback from government leaders Alberta’s education minister says a curriculum proposal by the province’s Catholic superintendents, which is in line with Catholic teaching, is “unacceptable.” The curriculum approach is also catching pushback from academics, politicians, and others.
“I’m deeply concerned to see it suggested that providing Alberta students with accurate information on these important topics is ‘problematic,’ or that there’s something wrong with being gay,” David Eggen said in a statement last week. “I can assure Albertans that, under our government, any curriculum changes will be inclusive of all students — no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Premier Notley said, "Nowhere do the rights of religious freedom extend to that person's right to somehow attack or hurt others — and that's what's happening here. We will not use public dollars to have sexual health programs that deny science, that deny evidence, and that deny human rights.
"They can continue to work on (the proposal) all they want, but we ultimately approve the curriculum that goes into schools — and this kind of curriculum will not happen."
Notley sad further that there is no debating the issue of consent.
"Consent is the law in Alberta and under no circumstances will any child in Alberta be taught that they have to somehow accept illegal behaviour in a sexual relationship,” stated Notley. “The end."
Eggen echoed Notley’s statements
"There's no (room for) negotiation for that, I can tell you," he said Tuesday. "Teaching consent is a basic health and safety issue for students in regards to sexuality, and it needs to be strengthened if anything."
Infringing on religious freedom? Kenney, who attended Catholic school, agreed there should be a basic common curriculum in the school system. However, Catholic, independent and charter schools will have different approaches to developing their curriculum, and that's what makes them special.
"That's what we celebrate in a diverse society, particularly in one that believes in parental choice," he said.
The Council of Catholic School Superintendents of Alberta released a statement Wednesday in response to the controversy.
"For the past year, representatives from Catholic school districts have been working alongside the government with curriculum development, including the new wellness curriculum," it said.
"From what the CCSSA knows, the proposed wellness curriculum is designed to include a variety of perspectives which respects all," the statement continued. "All potential human sexuality topics can be taught in Catholic schools, and authentically framed from the Catholic perspective. The CCSSA resource is intended to complement the prescribed the Alberta Education wellness curriculum; it is not intended to replace the provincially mandated outcomes."
The Council also said its Catholic schools are committed to building inclusive communities to promote welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environments where all are respected and belong.
"This is a foundational belief in our faith and is reflected in the climate and culture as well as resources within our schools," the CCSSA statement said. "Our priority is to ensure that all of our students excel as healthy and productive learners."
Special protections The controversy comes as Notley's government plans to introduce legislation in the fall session requiring all schools that receive public money to establish anti-discrimination codes of conduct, adopt policies protecting LGBTQ students, and affirm that students have a legal right to set up gay-straight alliance clubs.
Eggen has said the bill also aims to block Kenney’s proposal that school officials tell parents when their children join a gay-straight alliance. The Education minister had said that many schools have been working with the government on the LGBT rules, but 20 of them, mainly private schools, have been resisting.
Private schools get 70 percent of their funding from the government, The Canadian Press report said.
Previous controversial sex-ed curriculum
The Catholic superintendents’ concern with the new Alberta sex ed curriculum is that it will resemble Ontario’s controversial sex-education curriculum.
The Ontario curriculum is “very prescriptive,” said Karl Germann, president of the Council of Superintendents.
Ontario’s curriculum, introduced in 2015, presents gender identity discussions in third grade, and brings up consent and sexual orientation in Grade 6. It gives teachers scripts to start classroom discussions.
Germann said Alberta Catholic schools are mandated to teach what’s in the Alberta curriculum, but they also want to teach students the Church’s beliefs.
The Catholic superintendents’ association applied for a $66,005 grant in January to develop “a parallel human sexuality curriculum that reflects many common outcomes embedded in our Catholic faith.”
This came to light after a freedom of information request was filed following suspicions arising among a group of Edmonton sexual health educators that Catholic school trustees were pushing for a “diluted” adaptation of human sexuality education in the new curriculum.
The superintendents had wanted a group of 10 educators to write a new sex-ed curriculum, to then have it evaluated by religious educators, a teacher focus group and Alberta bishops and clergy.
“We wanted to make sure that our Catholic views and beliefs were represented in the curriculum,” said Germann.
Education Department Deputy Minister Curtis Clark denied the project in March, with the reason that the government doesn’t pay for religious curriculum or resources.
The curriculum project is still moving forward, Germann said, with personnel and resources from Alberta Catholic school districts across. Germann said a draft curriculum should be submitted to the education ministry for approval in the next few weeks.
After rejection of the grant proposal in April, the Catholic superintendents communicated to the ministry about the Catholic districts’ needs with the new curriculum in terms avoiding conflict with Church teaching.
Specific concerns The CCSSA lists possible contrary curricular outcomes, including the requirement to discuss consent, reproductive aid technologies for other “family types,” contraception, same-sex relationships, anal and oral sex, masturbation, “modern gender theory,” pornography and “sexualization of girls (and boys).”
The superintendents say Catholic schools are “unable to teach any outcome requiring promotion of homosexual relationships,” and would promote a life of chastity and virtue as a “positive choice” for those who experience same-sex attraction.
Consent can’t be taught as the threshold to have sex, they said, and that sexual relations should happen in “an authentic life-giving relationship embedded within the sacrament of marriage.”
It would be a problem to teach Catholic students that gender identity is different from a person’s biological sex, they said as well.
“We cannot promote modern gender theory or anything that is ideologically opposed to Catholic teaching,” the superintendents stated. “It is best to keep outcomes (curriculum goals) in this area general enough to be authentically framed for each way of knowing so a conflicting ideology is not imposed.”
And I'm not being flippant here...I honestly don't know.
Diversity means only the way of the Control-LEFT.
I know it’s Canada, so the First Amendment really doesn’t come into play — but the modern notion of Freedom FROM religion as a perversion of the actual time-honored civil right to freely practice your faith is really creepy.
We’re back in the dark ages.
Love it...Control-left.
Hell of a lot worse than alt-right.
It is a pet project to remind folks about the Control-LEFT media and their masters.
The relevant section is right at the beginning:
CONSTITUTION ACT, 1982 (80)
PART I
CANADIAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law:
Guarantee of Rights and Freedoms
Marginal note:Rights and freedoms in Canada
1. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.(emphasis mine)
Fundamental Freedoms
Marginal note:Fundamental freedoms
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association.
I think the U.S. is somewhat rare in having something like the Bill of Rights. With all our problems here I am occasionally reminded that it can always be worse.
America has $hit hole countries on BOTH of it’s borders.
This really sounds super-sicko.
Oh yes. Institutionalized support for Hefner, Weinstein,Sexual Revolution will really encourage healthy behavior.
Do these people even know about reality, and self control? How about chastity?
Hmmm...just as there are some in this country who claim that our Constitution is “a living document” (which,given the fact that the ability to amend it is built right into it,is true in a way) it seems possible that “reasonable limits” might be a phrase spoken often by certain individuals,groups and even parties in Canada.
Well, they clearly don’t have freedom of speech in our sense of the term. Look into Mark Steyn and his prosecution by a Human Rights Commission kangaroo court.
And this is Alberta, considered to be the most conservative of Canada provinces. Sad indeed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_Canada
Our free speech is eroding. I know we have pastors who have had problems for speaking out against homosexuality. We also have had our free speech clamped down on if we say anything that promotes hatred toward islam. Naturally, it was a muslim who brought this bill into law and nobody dared say anything. Our dreamy man/child Prime Minister loves the muslims. He also loves the homosexuals, so I don’t know how that lines up, but, whatever. I guess he just never has a photo-op with both groups at the same time.
I see the problem here as public funding. According to the article, the gov funds 70% of the catholic school.
He who pays the piper calls the tune.
Thusly I oppose vouchers in the u s. This is what will happen.
Canada is becoming more like thd old Soviet Union every year. Things aren’t that bad in contemporary Russia.
What the government appears to be saying is that the church cannot teach any doctrine that there be any reason to withold sex if you want to have sex.
In other words, teaching chastity is about to become a crime.
All to poofters the left surrenders,
except for what to Muslims they freely give,
God and sanity must takes a backseat
so the poofters lifestyle they may live,
you better surrender all,
you better surrender all,
don’t let the Gaystapo get upset with you
you better surrender all....
The government of Alberta in no way, shape or form represents Albertans. They are attempting this against all our wishes.
We have a lame election system. The ndp didn’t get many votes, but because the Conservative vote was split down the middle, they got in with a majority. The vast majority of the province want nothing to do with these lefties and commies.
They are pushing more and more of us to homeschooling.
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