Jewish schools must teach Quebec's new religions course
By JANICE ARNOLD
Staff Reporter
Jewish day schools, like all other private and public schools in the province, will be required to teach a new course on major religions from a cultural perspective starting in the fall of 2008 or they will lose their government funding.
Charley Levy, executive director of the Association of Jewish Day Schools (AJDS), said he could see such a course being problematic, particularly for Orthodox schools. ''It all depends on what the content will be and what kind of latitude will be give on the components that have to be taught,'' he said.
Another concern is how the Jewish schools are going to fit the course into an already heavy schedule, he said.
Levy said last week he had no other information about the course, other than what has been posted on the education ministry's website. He said he will be seeking more details and plans to call a meeting of the schools in the next few weeks to study the matter.
The AJDS represents 15 school corporations on 23 campuses, about 10 of which Levy described as Orthodox.
Rabbi Mendel Marasow, executive director of Beth Rivkah Academy, said he was not aware of the planned curriculum change but said he did not believe it would be feasible for his Orthodox school for girls to teach such a course.
''I don't think it will ever happen… We are not going to teach Catholicism, Hinduism and Islam here. Jews have given their lives in dictatorships not to have to teach [another religion],'' he said.
Rabbi Marasow said he is confident the government will allow the course to be ''adapted to fit the school's philosophy. It's common sense. They can't just dictate.''
Education Minister Jean-Marc Fournier announced earlier this month that a compulsory course called ''ethics and religious culture'' will be introduced into all elementary and high schools to replace the current choices of Catholic, Protestant or neutral moral instruction. He was firm that even schools serving cultural communities must also teach the course.
Quebec has decided to re-invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Human Rights Charter to enable the current denominational classes to continue in public schools for another three years. The application of the clause was up for review in July, as is required every five years.
Fournier said the goal is to have all students following the same course curriculum so they can get to know and respect other religions. An outline of the course stresses that teachers must be careful to respect the individual beliefs of students and to treat the religions equitably.
The elimination of confessional instruction and the move to an academic study of ethics and religion is part of the long-underway process of secularizing the province's public school system. In the late 1990s, denominational school boards were replaced by ones based on language. Some saw the continuation of optional Catholic and Protestant instruction as privileging these groups and inappropriate in an increasingly pluralistic society.
''This new approach emphasizes reflection on our values, rules and rights, and it recognizes that religious heritage as an important part of our culture. It will ensure students continuous and progressive learning, adapted to their age and the context in which they develop,'' Fournier said in a statement.
The three-year delay in implementing the new course is intended to give schools and teachers time to prepare for it.
A parliamentary commission will be held, at a time not yet determined, to allow invited groups to express their point of view on the changes outlined in the bill that Fournier tabled in the National Assembly earlier this month.
According to the course outline, the religious component of the course is intended to familiarize students with the ''religious heritage of Quebec'' and will include Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism and aboriginal beliefs. It will also look at newer religions in Quebec, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism, as well as secularism.
The course is to be taught ''with flexibility, leaving latitude to the teaching staff to adapt the instruction to the reality of the milieu without losing sight of the educational perspectives of the program.''
In February the Conseil Superieur de l'Education, an advisory body to the education minister, recommended that the exemption from the charter not be renewed and that a ''non-confessional'' course in religion and ethics for all students be implemented as soon as possible.
A similar conclusion was reached in 1999, after the completion of a two-year, government-commissioned study titled Religion in Secular Schools: A New Perspective for Quebec by academic Jean-Pierre Proulx.
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