Here is a wonderfully illustrative and instructive Letter to the Editor in today's Edmonton Journal. It captures the concern behind the expanded and extended opting-out provisions in Bill 44 eloquently and almost poetically.
Here is another that is equally as insightful about what we should allow and expect of our public education system. This letter it totally aligned with the recent research finding we did for the Edmonton Public School Board on what the citizens of Edmonton what from their public education system.
There was a comment in the Edmonton Journal Venting column today that said to the effect if evolution were real then why are there still apes? If a comedian said that, I would have context enough to laugh. Without that context this comment is also enough to make one weep.
By not exposing our children to the full array of thought and inquiry, be it science or faith, past, present and potential, we stifle human curiosity and exploration. We rob our youth of the means to develop their own minds and to find their own meanings. Mankind, like nature, thrives on diversity.
This is not the stuff of the law or legal processes like Bill44 enables. The law is too blunt an instrument to decide such things.
The fallout for Bill 44 is to the integrity of the Stelmach government like 500 dead ducks were to the oil sands industry. It is time to put away these "fundamentalist principles" Premier Stelmach and do the right thing for Alberta's children and our society.
Here is another that is equally as insightful about what we should allow and expect of our public education system. This letter it totally aligned with the recent research finding we did for the Edmonton Public School Board on what the citizens of Edmonton what from their public education system.
There was a comment in the Edmonton Journal Venting column today that said to the effect if evolution were real then why are there still apes? If a comedian said that, I would have context enough to laugh. Without that context this comment is also enough to make one weep.
By not exposing our children to the full array of thought and inquiry, be it science or faith, past, present and potential, we stifle human curiosity and exploration. We rob our youth of the means to develop their own minds and to find their own meanings. Mankind, like nature, thrives on diversity.
This is not the stuff of the law or legal processes like Bill44 enables. The law is too blunt an instrument to decide such things.
The fallout for Bill 44 is to the integrity of the Stelmach government like 500 dead ducks were to the oil sands industry. It is time to put away these "fundamentalist principles" Premier Stelmach and do the right thing for Alberta's children and our society.
Maybe time to stop the useless but legal protest. You lost.
ReplyDeleteThis matter of Bill 44 is far from lost - it has just been to 2nd reading and debated last week. The protests will persist and the issues are not going away.
ReplyDeleteWe Progressive Conservatives used to roll our eyes at such idiocy comoing out of the Reform and Alliance movement but said and did nothing. One day we wake up the Federal PC party is gone and the neo-cons have taken power and model themselves after George Bush.
Not going to make that mistake again.
Is it time to drop the word 'progressive' from the party name? I've seen little evidence of progress in provincial governance of late...which is to be expected from those in caucus who deny evolution and fear homosexuals. But shame on the rest of you.
ReplyDeleteActually it was the Progressive Conservative party that brought in Bill 44. I think Ken is seriously in the wrong party.
ReplyDeleteThere are only a few paradigms in modern Canadian politics: Liberal, Conservative, and to a lesser degree New Democrat/socialist. Which one are you?
ReplyDeleteAnon @5:41 - you live in a very 2-dimensional and linear political world. Pity. Is your life like that too? I don't think about left or right - I am moving forward instead of backwards.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 5:06 - you are right it was a Progressive Conservative Party that incorporated sxual orientation into the Alberta Human Rights legislation - only took 11 years but we are finally doing it.
ReplyDeleteNow lets stop the maddness and keep school attendance,teaching and course content in the School Act where it belongs.
Yes. Belonging of course in the hands of the parents of the children.
ReplyDeleteAnd moving forward to the left, clearly.
ReplyDeleteThe left/right spectrum is a very valid indication of where someone's views are. Nothing wrong if you're left or right - it's like describing the colour of a car. How else to describe someone's views?
ReplyDeleteThe left-right designation of political positioning is too shallow and simplistic a way to describe the way people really deal and feel with their thoughts on political and policy issues. We need a descriptor set that allows for a deeper understanding and appreciation of issues.
ReplyDeleteHow would you describe it then? What scale?
ReplyDeleteI agree, left-right is obsolete.
ReplyDeleteHow about central control versus decentralized or diffuse control? Or naivist versus realist?
I would characterize Bill 44 apologists as being central planning naivists.
Kevin Aschim
Left-right is very much relevant to today's political paradigm. How else can one's ideology be described? No one has given an answer.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of ways to rethinking relationship of values. Consider Traditional, Modern and Progressive. How about the Spiral Dynamics of Memes that influence how people perceive the world and how they make decisions. From the instinctively to seeking safety, to dominance.power, to seekking meaning and order, to autonomy/manipulation, to seeking equality & community, to flexibility and integration with nature as a few ways to character a person driver of political values. I could go on but Left-Right is so sterile and one-dimensional.
ReplyDeleteAnd relevant to describing one's own views, like every one of the attributes Ken mentions above. This is a rather left wing blog and I like a lot of things he has to say.
ReplyDeleteAnon - thx for the comment but I am more of a Progressive not left wing at all.
ReplyDeleteOne in the same.
ReplyDeleteHow would you know and how can we tell you have any authenticity or authority to back up your ANONTMOUS comments. Come out of the partisan closet and give us you name and some backgroud on yourself. Free Speech can't thrive behind a curtain of fear - especially if you fear your party, your leader and your government.
ReplyDeleteWhat's partisan about saying something is left or right wing? Spectrum-based politics is principled and is anything but partisan.
ReplyDelete