Schools shouldn’t refute parents’ beliefs, says Tory MLA

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/06/2016 (3403 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Schools should not tell students that their parents’ beliefs and culture are irrelevant or incorrect, Tory rookie MLA James Teitsma declared in the legislature this week.

Teitsma cited former-justice Murray Sinclair’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission report on residential schools as justification for schools staying out of family beliefs.

But Teitsma said in an interview Friday that his own six children have never experienced such issues in their schools in his Radisson riding, and that his comments had nothing to do with an ongoing controversy in which Steinbach-based Hanover School Division will not allow classroom discussion of sexual identity issues.

“When I read the TRC report, it’s heartbreaking,” Teitsma said. “You want to apply them (TRC findings) to your own journey. My parents took great care to instill their values in me.”

Teitsma spoke in the legislature during time for members’ statements, telling MLAs that the coincidental timing of having one child graduating high school at the same time his wife is about to give birth, compelled him to speak.

He told the house: “It’s important that public and independent schools realize too that their role is to help the parents. It’s not just the parents’ right to choose the type of education that their children have, it’s their responsibility.

“Some have said that our schools should be places where the beliefs and cultural identity of parents are deemed irrelevant, or worse, something to be resisted or corrected. But such thinking is wrong.

“My indigenous colleagues surely remember Justice Sinclair saying how wrong it is to prevent the transmission of cultural identity from one generation to the next.”

Teitsma said Friday that he was not making any specific references.

“Nothing comes to my mind,” he said.

Prior to running for office, Teitsma worked for a lobby group that opposed abortion, same-sex marriage and Bill 18, the NDP legislation that directs high-school administrators to work with students who ask to form a gay-straight alliance.

His riding covers parts of both River East Transcona and Louis Riel school divisions, which both want greater parent involvement, he said.

“The school is there to assist parents,” Teitsma said. “I’ve been impressed by their passion.”

The NDP opposition declined to comment.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca