Dear Mr Tory,
This is my happy little blog, which tends to be very non-political. Unless you get me riled up about daycare. Or reproductive rights. But mostly, I’m pretty happy to hang out here and tell my stories.
I’d say probably half the people who read this blog don’t live in Ontario, so they don’t know that you are running for Premier of Ontario, as leader of the provincial Conservative Party. They might not have also heard that you recently stated that publicly funded Christian schools would be able to continue to teach creationism within the guidelines of the Ontario school curriculum.
Creationism? Seriously?
So when the Liberal folks came by yesterday and asked me if they could stick a sign on my lawn, apolitical as I usually am, I said yes. Because this single issue is enough to sway my vote. It’s not that I’m not open to other points of view, and I fully support teaching kids to be open minded and critical thinkers. But creationism has no basis in fact. It’s completely fallacious and flies in the face of hundreds of years of scientific theory. It’s not a theory, it’s a fantasy. And there is no place for it in a publicly funded school.
But I’m willing to make a deal with you. I’ll take down that Liberal sign and put up a Conservative sign, and leave it there all through the election, even though my skin will crawl just a little bit every time I look out my window. And all you have to do is confirm that Flying Spaghetti Monsterism will also be taught in publicly funded schools. I mean, that’s only fair, right? Balanced.
Sincerely yours,
DaniGirl
I’m not impressed with John Tory either, but y’know, this is the door that opens when our government funds separate school boards – a practice that I personally find loathesome. Who is it again that’s talking about abolishing funding for the Catholic School Board? Because that’s who I’d vote for.
It will be a cold day in hell before I vote for John Tory.
That said, he seems to have clarified that he is not supporting the teaching of creationism in science class – it’s more that he expects the creation vs. evolution debate to be taken up in religion class.
The funding of religious education is one of those issues that bring idealism and pragmatism into conflict. I’ve assigned the topic as a research paper in my writing classes and received some very persuasive essays showing how the current system in Ontario is discriminatory. And it is – it is absolutely discriminatory. And discrimination is a bad thing, right?
But pulling funding from a school board as large and well-established as the Roman Catholic system is politically impossible, even practically impossible. And extending funding to anybody who wants to start a private school would be disastrous – absolutely disastrous. So I guess discrimination is what we’re stuck with.
Yeah. The separate school issue is another can of worms altogether, isn’t it? While I can see why people argue against it, that it *is* discriminatory and based on an antiquated system, I do tend to agree with B&P that it’s definitely politically and perhaps financially untenable to deconstruct the system at this point. And, erm, my boys are both in the Catholic system. So I think I’ll stay out of this one. Until, that is, they start advocating Intelligent Design in the Catholic board – then all bets are off!
Amen, sister! I am *so* with you on this one. Not that I would be voting PC anyway, but doubly so now. (May you be touched by his noodly appendage
Ummm, I meant the FSM’s noodly appendage, not John Tory’s. But you probably figured it out on your own.
It will be an extraordinarily cold day in Hell before I vote for anyone who denies Flying Spaghetti Monsterism. (Also before I vote for Tory, since… I’m not a Canadian citizen…)
In my home state of Virginia, each locality has its own school board- so every 20 schools or so get to make their own decisions. Also not the best choice ever.
Creationism as it’s taught is certainly fallacious. But, even as a biologist, I do have at least a passing belief in a non-noodly deity. I think the ideas are at least marginally compatible (though not if the Bible is read literally, and hey, how about them shrimp anyhow?) But there’s no place for religion-as-fact in a publicly funded school, in my mind. World Religions, sure, but not Dogma As Science. Shudder.
Can you get some of those flying spaghettie monster signs made up… we could start a revolution… I’d put one up faster than a creationism one! Isn’t that what Church is for?? They could probably benefit a little from government funding!!
Mmmm….suddenly craving spaghetti….
excellent post, but come on Dani, can’t you do better at telling us what you really think?
I know I am in the minority here – but I am voting for John Tory. Or, more specificially, Graham Fox, the candidate in my riding. Dalton gives me the creeps… yuck… all his lies… come on! If I wasn’t so tired I could go on and on..
And… I am Greek Orthodox… clearly religion is important to me and my family, and we’ll very likely be putting our sons in the Catholic School system. As well as Sunday school. I love our church, and our Greek community and our priest… So… can’t say I’m much against creationism – especially is Tory was talking about it being allowed to be taught in the Catholic School board system. (Excuse me if I am wrong, and if I’m wrong, I’d love to be told so I can get my facts straight)
Hey Loukia, thanks for commenting.
Tory was talking about allowing creationism to be taught in the public school system, for starters, not the Catholic board. And creationism and Catholicism (or even Christianity) are not even close to being the same thing. Creationism, in very broad strokes, implies the rejection of the theory of evolution. It takes as literal fact the Genesis story from the Bible – that some time a couple of thousand years ago, God created the world and all its inhabitants in six days – while rejecting everything science has taught us about evolution and the universe being 13 or 14 billion years old.
The wikipedia link in my original post has some great info, if you’d like to know more.
Thanks Dani. I can see a problem with allowing that to be taught in the public school system, for sure, with so many different religions…. thanks for clarifying for me!
Ain’t this the truth?
I have such a problem with the discriminatory nature of the Catholic school board (and don’t even get me started on funding other religious schools). Wouldn’t it be nice if *all* the parties could agree that the having of two school boards is an outdated and ridiculous system, and that *all* of the parties would make it a platform to combine the two boards?