Editor:
In 2017, when I asked a BC Teachers’ Federation official over the phone whether there is any child rearing curriculum taught in any of B.C.’s school districts, he immediately replied there is not.
When I asked the reason for its absence and whether it may be due to the subject matter being too controversial, he replied with a simple “yes”.
I recently read a children’s health academic noting the irony: You have to pass a test to drive a car or to become a citizen, but there’s no exam required to become a parent, and yet child abuse can stem from a lack of awareness about child development.
The above facts strongly suggest there are philosophical and political obstacles to teaching students such crucial life skills such as nourishingly parenting children.
But could teaching parenting curriculum be considered any more intrusively controversial than teaching students Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) curriculum, beginning in Kindergarten, as we’re now doing in B.C. schools?
Or the recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling basically stating that parents must abide by and refer to their young children’s chosen gender, self-identifying pronouns and name?
Am I missing something here?
Frank Sterle Jr