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The Role of Religion at The Calgary Board of Education

June 9, 2006

(Watch the conference presentation on video: Religion and Public Schooling at the Calgary Board of Education - A Case Study)Good afternoon. Only 30% of adult Canadian citizens, and of those in this room, have any direct contact with public schooling, and its been years, if not decades, since the other 70 per cent have set foot in a school or classroom and observed the life and times of public education. If they opened the door of one of our schools, walked down the hallways, and observed the learning going on in classrooms...they would immediately be struck by the stunning socio­demographic change in the population of our schools, and markedly so in large urban schools systems like Calgary public, from when they were students. Virtually all of our 240 public schools in the Calgary Board of Education have a rich kaleidoscope of cultural backgrounds, faith traditions and beliefs incarnate in the student body. Whereas twenty years ago only one per cent of our Kindergarten-Grade One students were ESL, today 20% of CBE Kindergarten to Grade One students are designated ESL learners. In just three short generations, our Canadian education world has been turned upside down, and we have gone from a universe where my grandfather, a Saskatchewan German-Mennonite farmer/minister/one-room public school teacher taught a homogeneous group of Mennonite children, daily reading the Christian scriptures to them, and leading them in the saying of the Christian Lord's Prayer, to an urban school universe where Buddhist, Sikh, Muslim, Judaic and Christian faiths are everywhere present among students; where Youth for Christ and Young Life Christian organizations run support programs for students, where prayer times and places are set aside for Islamic students, where one student may be wearing a "What Would Jesus Do" bracelet; another is wearing the hajib head scarf, or maybe a burka, and another a Sikh turban with perhaps a covered religious dagger. Perhaps the most defining characteristic of CBE schools apart from our outstanding academic success rates, is that they are multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-faith environments. The realities and dynamics of religion are a fact of life in our public education system. Given these realities, how would you "do" public school if you sat in the Chief Superintendent's Chair? How would you govern as a Board of Trustees when it comes to the growing religious fact in our schools? It's my privilege this afternoon to present a short case study review to this conference on the role of religion in the Calgary Board of Education known as the CBE. This is not a scholarly analysis, nor a personal polemic, but rather a descriptive overview of how the CBE treats this essential matter of the role of religion in public schooling. The CBE is one of Canada's largest public schools systems, with 100,000 students representing an incredible kaleidoscope of cultural backgrounds, faith traditions and beliefs. As with all public school boards, the CBE is a creation of the Alberta provincial legislature, through the province's School Act, and as such we are a creature and agent of the state, legislatively delegated with responsibility to provide instruction in the provincial curriculum. The Alberta School Act deals with the issue of religion in various sections:Section 50 permits a school board to prescribe religious instruction and religious exercises for its students. Given our multi-faith environment, the CBE Board does not prescribe such activity.Section 21 permits a school board to establish an "alternative program" that emphasizes a particular language, culture, religion, or subject matter. The CBE has chosen to not operate alternative religion or faith-based programs.Finally, Section 3 says the following: "All education programs and instructional materials used in schools must reflect the diverse nature and heritage of society in Alberta, promote understanding and respect for others and honor and respect the common values and beliefs of Albertans. For greater certainty, education programs and instructional materials must not promote or foster doctrines of racial or ethnic superiority or persecution, religious intolerance or persecution, social change through violent action or disobedience of laws.It is this Section 3 which undergirds the CBE's approach to religion and public schooling. As well, I should note that the provincial Department of Education has developed curricula on world religions. Now if I may provide some brief historical context for the CBE's involvement with religion. About 25 years ago our District established a Jewish and a Christian alternative school. This proved to be a very controversial decision at the time, with the next public school board election in the city fought over this very issue of religion and public schooling. An entirely new slate of trustees was elected and the new board proceeded to terminate the CBE's involvement with these two religious schools. Over the course of time a perception developed, perhaps grounded somewhat in reality, which the CBE was not religion-friendly. To some degree this perception was likely connected to certain local school decisions to de-link traditional religious-based holidays and school festivals from their religious roots, out of concern that celebrating religious holidays like Christmas was problematic, given the growing cultural diversity in our schools and the desire to be respectfully inclusive. As well, during the 70's and 80's there seemed to be a perception abroad that public schools generally were values-free and working at cross-purposes to some parent's expectations for the moral development of their children. Simultaneously, over this 25 year period a significant number of faith-based private schools began operating in Calgary, with about 20 such schools presently offering education programs to students. In late 1999 a reform-minded group of trustees was elected to govern the CBE and in 2001 we began to intentionally and publicly address this important matter of the role of religion at the CBE. Initially we considered the notion of introducing faith-based alternative programs or schools into the CBE, but instead decided to launch into a very comprehensive discussion with our stakeholders on the role of religion in public schooling. Far from being a controversial or divisive process, this public conversation proved to be very salutary. A broad spectrum of our publics became engaged with trustees on the issue, including Calgary religious leaders from major faith traditions, the Alberta Teacher's Association, CBE employees, parents and University of Calgary faculty. To kick-start this review, the Board established a trustees sub-committee on the Role of Religion, tasked with the responsibility of overseeing the public conversation, with support from a consulting firm contracted to facilitate the engagement process. Research was conducted on how other jurisdictions across Canada were addressing this issue. University of Calgary Religious Studies faculty members prepared academic papers. Various focus groups or hearing panels were convened. The public at large was engaged through an on-line survey which presented a spectrum of options on which the CBE wanted the public to consider and express their opinion. A back-grounder paper on religion and public schooling was prepared and circulated to the public as part of the overall conversation. A few copies of the back-grounder paper are available to you, and let me briefly read some sections of this document. Under the heading: Why are we doing this? "We want to engage our stakeholders in discussions about the role of religion in public education. As trustees we must make decisions about the leadership you expect from us on this controversial topic. Our purpose as a public education system is to provide the promise and the hope that all children will learn to the best of their ability and that they will learn how to fully take part in a democratic society. We accept our shared responsibility with parents and community to work towards our expected results.As a public system we must accept children of all faiths, and creeds, and show tolerance and respect for differences among faiths while at the same time encouraging inquiry and discussion in the continuing search for truth—the hallmark of a growing, rational being.We want to offer learning opportunities related to moral, ethical, spiritual and religious interests. As trustees we need to know what you think, what you expect of us, and what you will support when it comes to our public education system meeting the moral, ethical, spiritual and religious interests and needs of our students, their parents and society.The CBE accepts the principle that a valued objective in the education of children is understanding and appreciation of the spiritual, cultural and religious history of humanity."In this back-grounder survey document we laid out a spectrum of six possibilities of choice for the CBE. The first three were already being offered to some degree and included the following:To allow for informal, voluntary opportunities for students, such a clubs, prayer groups, etc.To allow for religious expression such as Christmas concerts, celebration of Hanukkah, Easter, Ramadan, etc.To incorporate opportunities to learn about morality and ethics in the regular curriculum.The second three choices were new and included the following:Offer courses on world religionsOffer religious alternative programsOperate religious schools.A few thousand Calgarians responded to the survey. There was considerable parallelism between the public survey results and the input received by trustees from the expert hearing panel. Less than 6% of survey respondents indicated that the CBE should not be offering any of these choices. This could be considered the anti-religion residual factor. There was overwhelming support for the CBE offering at least some of the six options, which was taken to mean that there was a significant measure of favorable support of a stronger role for religion in the CBE. The bulk of this interest seemed to be focused on expanding offerings to include courses on world religions, with a smaller interest in including religious alternative programs or schools. These results from the public survey were commensurate with the majority view of the hearing panel. Overall the results from our public conversation served to affirm the CBE in maintaining its current three options and indicated that consideration for introducing instruction on world religions was warranted. As a result of this public conversation process which stretched over a year, CBE trustees made a number of decisions.The Chief Superintendent was directed to offer curriculum related to world religions. Today two elective courses, World Religions at the Grade 12 level and Religious Meaning at Grade 11, are offered in a number of CBE high schools.The Religious Meaning course explores the needs and ways that humankind searches for religious meaning through text, practice, experience and ritual, and allows students to develop skills in researching and investigating religious-related topics.The World Religions course introduces students to an exploration of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism and provides students with an awareness of the nature, place and function of religions.The Chief was directed to form an advisory panel that included representation from Uof C professors and Calgary religious leaders to explore potential connections and possibilities of embedding the study of religion at the kindergarten to grade 9 level.And so today, for example , at the Grade 1-3 level the curriculum calls for:Helping students appreciate that students have different religious traditions and beliefs. Discussing how religion contributes to our identity. Asking students how we can show sensitivity and respect for the religious diversity in the school and community. Helping students recognize that beliefs and traditions may be different from our own. Asking students what religious celebrations, landmarks, symbols and clothing can we recognize in our community. Asking students how religion contributes to the development of the community and how religious diversity is expressed in the communityThe Chief was directed to clarify the CBE's administrative regulation on Religion in Education for principals, staff and parents. One reason for this was to ensure that it was clearly understood that the celebration of religious festivals (ie. Christmas programs, concerts, songs, etc.) was permitted.A few copies of the CBE administrative regulation of religion are available for those interested.This important regulation guides teachers and administrators to teach about religions, not to teach religious dogma; and provides guidance on how to treat religion in the instructional context, how to deal with religious holidays, a student's personal religious expression in school, religious objects and guest religious speakers.The Chief was directed to continue to pursue an explicit and intentional focus on character education. CBE trustees have made character education one of our explicit four ends for the CBE, along with academic success, personal development and citizenship education.The preamble to this Character End calls for students to be guided by their conscience, to act morally, to do what is right with wisdom and respect for others, and then goes on to identify particular character traits that would be universally supported by parents and religious groups, and which are grounded in religious scriptures. All schools are to intentionalize the development of character education, and trustees receive an annual monitoring report on this end. I should note here that one of the recent success stories for the CBE has been the establishment of our what we have called our Traditional Learning Centre schools, or TLC's. These schools combine a strong emphasis on teacher-directed learning, rigorous academics, second language instruction, with a very strong focus on character education, with all students wearing the TLC school uniform. A few thousand students are being educated at our TLC sites with a robust waiting list of interested parents and students. So, to begin to wrap up this overview, we could summarize the CBE's approach to religion and public schooling as follows:The CBE believes the religious fact is an integral part of human existence. Therefore it is a legitimate and necessary aspect of public schooling, and teachers are encouraged to involve students in an age-appropriate objective discussion of religious, moral and spiritual topics when relevant in the curriculum;We want to respect and encourage individual student religious expression and as such permit individual student and small group religious expression on school property;We want to engender respect and tolerance for religious cultural practices, therefore we encourage the celebration of religious festivals in schools, and permit the wearing of religious garb and religious articles;We want to foster an understanding of the human religious and spiritual impulse, and thus we offer explicit instruction in world religions and religious meaning courses, and incorporate learning about religion throughout various grade level curricula;At the same time, religious activities, which constitute public acts of worship or the propagation of dogma, are not permissible within an instructional context;Teachers, being in a position of authority, are not to influence students by stating their personal religious beliefs, but are encouraged to involve students in the objective discussion of religious or spiritual topics;School participation in charitable/compassion work coordinated by religion-based groups, such as Samaritan's Purse, is permitted and should be presented to students as a voluntary activity;The principal must make reasonable efforts to acknowledge major religious holidays observed by the school community;Individual students may pray publicly or say prayers before meals or exams as long as done in a non-disruptive manner;We want to respect the desire of various people and groups within society to foster awareness of religious traditions, and therefore we permit the distribution of religious scriptures to students on a voluntary basis by organizations like the Gideons who have been distributing the Christian scriptures to elementary school students for decades.In conclusion, five years ago the CBE waded into what could have proved to be some very turbulent waters, as we launched into a high profile, public conversation with CBE stakeholders. However, perhaps because of the extensive and respectful public engagement process undertaken by trustees, the CBE has not encountered any negativity on its approach to religion and public schooling, nor have we had to deal with any particular controversial issue. The curricular study of religion and the respectful treatment of religion and personal faith are now a hallmark of the CBE, which we believe has adopted a reasoned and publicly supportable stance on the matter of religion and public schooling. Thank you. Presented by Gordon Dirks, Chair Calgary Board of Education