An idea not worth contemplating

Cet article explique qu'il n'y a aucune raison d'autoriser certaines écoles où  enseignent des profs au cerveau lavé par la milliardaire gourou Maharashi (Méditation Trenscendentale) à pratiquer les exercices du gourou dans les classes. Sinon, il faudrait aussi en arriver à autoriser la sciento, la sharia, les exercices des jésuites etc.

The Gazette - January 21, 2007

Talk about being unclear on the concept. It wasn't that long ago that the Quebec government abruptly ended religious instruction in publicly funded schools. A constitutional change was needed to do it, and a major reorganization of the school system, but at the end of the process the Protestant and Roman Catholic school boards had been swept away and replaced with linguistic bodies.

Not everyone is happy with the new arrangement, but there does seem to be a broad consensus of support for Quebec's resolutely secular approach to education. So what in heaven's name - if we might be so bold - are the principals of a half-dozen Montreal-area schools thinking when they seek to introduce Transcendental Meditation into their curriculum?

"My students deserve to have this," says Marielle Mayers, head of an Anjou elementary school "and it will transform the whole school." Perhaps she's right, but then so might Sharia law in the school, or the Jesuits' Spiritual Exercises, or inviting the Scientologists in to conduct some "auditing" sessions.

TM's proponents claim their practices have no link to any religion or cult, but that's a little disingenuous. The movement's founder is the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, guru to such stars as the Beatles, Mia Farrow and magician Doug Henning. Those who can remember the 1960s will recall the Maharishi as a frequent guest on the TV talk-show circuit. He styles himself His Holiness, claims to be in the Vedic tradition of Hinduism, and promises his adepts inner peace and unity with the universe and, if they really work at it, the power to levitate.

TM was also behind the now-defunct Natural Law Party, which contested a couple of federal and provincial elections by promising to establish a corps of "yogic flyers" whose bouncing meditation would unleash enough good vibes to reduce crime and improve health.

It might well be that TM resembles mainstream Hinduism in the same way that the genteel curries served in English country houses resemble the fiery cuisines of Madras and Bengal. But watered down or not, it's still a religion.

If parents want their children to learn the Maharishi's techniques, they can do what thousands of Catholic parents have done since the school system dumped the old religion textbooks into the recycling bin: They can set up their own community-based programs.

And if school officials feel compelled to introduce their pupils to stress-reducing techniques, there are plenty of psychological methods that are easy to learn and secular in content - and which cost far less than the $600 a student that TM would cost.

Having kicked 2,000 years of Christian tradition out the front door, there is no way the public-school authorities should allow Eastern mysticism slip in the back door. This is an idea that shouldn't fly - or levitate.

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007
 

Canada : No more money to "intolerant" schools

En résumé, des enseignants canadiens introduisent un projet exigeant que l'état cesse de verser des financements à des écoles libres enseignant le racisme ou la supériorité d'une religion sur une autre ...

March 15, 2006 Today's Family News

Despite concerns about possibly trampling on religious freedoms, B.C.’s public school teachers want the province to stop funding all faith-based independent schools that teach religious intolerance, the Vancouver Sun reported Monday.

A resolution to that effect was passed by the approximately 700 delegates attending the B.C. Teachers’ Federation annual meeting.

“All we’re saying is that the provincial government has to enact what it says it will do through the Independent Schools Act,” Vancouver teacher Jane MacEwan, who introduced the resolution, told the Sun. “And it clearly states that schools teaching religious superiority or racial superiority cannot receive [public] funding.”

The law bars public funding from being given to independent schools that practice or promote racial or ethnic superiority, religious intolerance or persecution, and social change through violence or sedition.

The resolution was initially drafted to refer to schools in Bountiful, a community in southeastern British Columbia run by a Fundamentalist Mormon sect that practices polygamy. But that reference was removed after some teachers said they believed it needed to be broader in scope.

“We have great and valid concerns around Bountiful,” MacEwan said, “but there are members here who also felt that there is a school in their area that they suspect of teaching racial and religious superiority so they wanted the motion to include that situation as well.”

The school was not identified.

Yet some teachers objected that the revised resolution failed to capture the union’s specific concerns about the need to protect the children in Bountiful. They also worried that it cast too wide a net by being seen to target other independent schools that genuinely believe the faith they profess to be superior to others.

Take Action> Residents of B.C. can contact B.C. Education Minister Shirley Bond and Premier Gordon Campbell to express their concerns with the BCTF resolution and how it could be read to apply to many independent schools.
Note: This is a resolution from the BCTF to the government. It is not the B.C. government that is proposing this resolution. When you contact the B.C. government, please indicate your support for how independent schools have been able to freely hold religious convictions in B.C. and that you would like this to continue.