Letter To The Editor - Reader Writes Against Separate School System
The opinions expressed in this letter are simply the opinions of the person who wrote it. They are not necessarily a reflection of the opinions of the people at MJ Independent. Have a view on this or any other topic drop us a line at moosejawnews@gmail.com
Dear Editor:
We sure need good leaders to tackle the greatly needed change in our Province in regard to the education of all our children and in regards to our democracy.
First we need to stop dividing our children in our education system based upon which religion one happen to be born in.
In that regard we should stop the project of the Joint Use School planned to be built on South Hill here in Moose Jaw.
We should not keep investing in things that treat our children differently based upon religious identification. Separating Catholic children from non Catholic in our schools is unacceptable.
All Catholic School Divisions in our province should be terminated and our Public school system should take over the operation of those schools with all schools sharing the same curriculum.
All our school board trustees need to be elected and all their meetings need to be broadcast live to the community via internet and via our community TV ( re-run need to be available and a community TV channel on Sask TV is needed).
Someone also has to step up and make sure that all our School Board election debate as well as all our Provincial and Municipal election debates will be well organized and be broadcast live to the community via internet and our community TV channel. To have a good democracy we need good communication.
Exposing our children to different teaching if one is Catholic or not and making them live in a different atmosphere ( either under the same roof separated by a wall or in a separate school) based uoon religious identification has to stop.
Conditioning our children from a young age to live in that kind of divisive society is what I believe the world is praying that we stop doing right now. Catholic or not, all our children need to be cared for in the same manner and need to be exposed to the same knowledge.
We are responsible to share with our children all that is known in regard to spirituality, science, medicine, arts and so on.
Our children need to be exposed according to their ages and needs to all the knowledge that is available within our world. This is their heritages not to be hidden from them.
Either that knowledge is expressed in a book, a film, a news, a documentary or in any other form, and in whatever kind of media that knowledge is carry, our department of education needs to be a system where it can take all that wealth of information that is out there and integrate it to our school system curriculum in a fast manner so all students can benefit from all the knowledge that is here in our world.
As far as Religion, our children according to their ages and needs have to be introduced to the story, teaching and exercise that all those great spiritual teacher of the past and of the present have used and still use today.
It is well establish that exercise like Meditation, breathing technique, contemplation, visualization, yoga, art, retreat, study, music and play are apparently all good for our mind and hearts.
The spiritual and cultural teaching of the great First Nation of this Turtle Island and from around the world should also be shared with all our children as they go through their education.
Documentaries on First nation Spirituality and culture like those made by Mr. Joseph J Campbell need to be seen by all.
Teachings coming from the Buddhist philosophy should also be shared with our student. That culture has a great inventory of teaching for children and for people of all age in regard to spiritual, physical & mental health.
Before our student reach grade 12 they should in my view all have been introduced to some teaching from Buddhism in regard to the true nature of who we are.
Books like, Mind beyond death by Dzogchen Ponlop, Secret Teaching of Padmasambhava and Natural Liberation from the same author will surely bring great insight in one mind and hearth.
Teachings found in the book , Dream Yoga by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu and: Death Intermediate State and Rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism by Lati Rinbochay & Jeffrey Hopkins “ forwarded by the Dalai Lama are also very interesting.
The Dalai Lama's book call “ The good Heart “ where his Holiness gives a Buddhist perspective on the teaching of Jesus is also a good read. We need all the good knowledge we can get to make the best of this precious short Human life we have.
The interesting point about spiritual development is that no one can really compare one's own development with any other person.
Everyone is different.
Like us, over time, if we let them, our kids will make up their own mind about what they want to believe in and what they want to do.
Along side spiritual study our student need to know how finances work in all level of government. Talking about finance I believe the time has come to make post secondary education free for everyone.
We truly need to take the time to re-examine where we are going with our education system.
Right now our two school boards have become real estate developer of 30 acres of land beside the proposed joint school here in Moose Jaw. It feels to me that most everybody on all levels of power are more focused on rushing to put a shovel in the ground to keep the economies going (before the election) then they are about questioning in what kind of environment we are putting our children in and what are we truly downloading within their minds and hearts.
Our parents, teacher and children are getting more and more stressed and everyone is facing many kinds of physical and mental illness.
Obesity, diabetes and food deficiency is on the rise and our big plan for the future of our children and of our community is to go built a big box out of town with a big wall in the middle to divide our children according to their religion.
Maybe our children would benefit more from others things then a housing development with a fast food chain close to their new divided school.
Green house, gardening, cooking, meditation and time to read book and watch documentary on a farm ?
There is to much at stake right now for the spiritual, physical and mental health of our children, our society and of our institution to keep trying to function in the same old way. The situation we are living globally is making us reconsider many things in regard to the way we live our life.
We need to rethink very seriously about what we want our children to learn, the way we should teach them, who should teach what and where will the teaching be done..
Yes, we are all God's children and Yes, everyone needs to be loved and cared for in the same manner, with the same respect, irrelevant of the Religion, Colour or Political party one may have been born into, or chose to join.
Let's not build wall that divide the minds and hearts of our children and our society. One Mind, One Planet, One People.
I hope that my request & ideas may be of benefit, or at last, may they hurt no one.
Best Regards to you All
Michel Labonte
Moose Jaw,SK