MTS horrifies Montana educator

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/05/2013 (4555 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One Montana educator is horrified by the prospect of Manitoba’s potentially reflecting sexual orientation and gender identity issues in school curricula.

That’s a proposal going before the annual meeting of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society next week, and if it passes, Education Minister Nancy Allan has said she is open to listening to the teachers’ union.

And before I hear again from one particular less-than-admiring reader, no, you should not assume that I consider the word ‘union’ a pejorative.

Back to today’s topic.

I just received an email which was also copied to several Manitoba Teachers’ Society senior players, from Glenn Wehe, an educator working for the Evergreen School District in Kalispell, Montana. While Wehe says he’s not speaking for his employer, he uses his employer’s email and signs the message with his work information.

Here’s some of what Wehe had to say:

“Unfortunately, Manitoba is a little too close to Montana for us to simply laugh out loud at the attempt of MTS to force parents to subject their children to information about an unnatural lifestyle and an unpopular political view.

“At least here in Montana we teach morals and ethics without the need to also teach debauchery and sodomy.

“I am sorry for our Canadian brothers and sisters in the teacher unions to the north, for they are forced to accept standards against their desire to teach the children.  If I were teaching in Canada I most surely would leave the profession out of shame.”

Wehe also talks about Canadian society being degraded, about multitudes of Manitobans being opposed to the MTS proposal but driven into anonymity by the fear of retribution from government, and he tosses out the possibility that the abduction and rape of children can be linked to such teachings. He casually uses the most vile and loathesome word in the English language, Nazi.

This comes from an educator who works with children. Various websites list Wehe as technology co-ordinator for his Montana school district, and the newspaper website The Missoulian says Wehe has run unsuccessfully for office. There is no mention on-line that I could find of his being a certified teacher.

Yes, it’s from someone in Montana, but when Manitoba public school teachers consider their executives’ proposal next week, they should keep in mind that Wehe’s type of attitudes are not necessarily confined to him. And maybe some teachers in Montana will hear about what Manitoba is doing, and consider whether their own children could benefit from some of those ideas.