Bill Ligertwood, director of the Kamloops Centre for Rational Thought, has filed a complaint with the British Columbia Ministry of Education over creationist lessons in science classes at Kamloops Christian School, which receives funding from the province.
Ligertwood is quoted in the Vancouver Sun saying, “there’s no way they should be teaching basically science fiction in science class. As far as we’re concerned, it’s no different than teaching the Easter Bunny is true in a science class.
“They can teach all the religion they want to teach, and that’s what they’ll do because it’s a Christian school, but it shouldn’t be in science class. It’s not science. This is an institution that is receiving public money and it’s teaching children lies.”
Section 76 of the School Act, make a distinction between public and independent schools in B.C.
A ministry spokesperson told Kamloops This Week, “Section 76 of the act requires all public schools to be conducted under strictly secular and non-sectarian principals and that no religious dogma or creed is taught.” However, “Parents who want their children to have a faith-based education program can go to an independent school, which is permitted to teach from the philosophical or religious perspective that the independent school authority deems appropriate.”
“What matters,” according to the ministry spokesperon, “is whether they’re teaching to the learning outcomes” as defined by the province.
Which really begs the question, are science teachers “teaching to” the learning outcomes when they teach religious beliefs as part of the science curriculum?
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