Dear Editor,
[RE: Langley man argues in favour of funding independent schools, July 13, Langley Advance Times online]
I absolutely disagree with Dean Clark and anyone else who wants public money going into private religious – or ethnic – schools.
Tax dollars should only go to the public-school system, although I would push for changes to it by adopting the best parts of private school education – which is an emphasis on results not merely warming desk seats.
Having said that, indoctrinating children into religious dogma before their minds have matured enough to understand what they are being forced fed is nothing less then child abuse.
It robs them of the chance to make their own decisions about whether to believe or not believe in their parents’ religion.
Children aren’t born religious.
And religion is given far more respect and deference in society then it deserves.
UNRELATED LETTER: Langley man urges seniors to donate COVID benefit
Religious schooling is about conformity, obedience to archaic ideas from our ignorant past when we had no understanding of how the natural world works.
Religious schooling undercuts science and freedom of expression and thought, which is dangerous in the modern world at a time when we need our wits about us for humanity to survive let alone thrive.
Private religious schools are elitist, they set up artificial divisions in societ, and are contrary to the building of a united and inclusive country.
The social conservatism founded on scripture is not the basis of a healthy and progressive democratic society.
It is self-defeating for society to continue to subsidize religious schools when science has shown that the God of the gaps is being diminished more each day. Educating kids in the philosophy of the Middle Ages is truly bizarre.
If religious parents want to isolate their kids from reality, then they can pay for it themselves.
As a taxpayer, I want no part of funding the robbing of children of the lives that they were meant to have.
Robert T. Rock, Mission
.
Do you have an opinion you’d like to share. Please send us a letter to the editor, include your first and last name, your address, and your phone number. Email to editor@langleyadvancetimes.com. In the meantime, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
