The Board of Education of Scarboro, a Toronto suburb, approved a motion today asking that religious instruction be removed from grades one to six in Scarboro schools and that for the remaining two elementary grades a new course be introduced to include teaching of the religious origins of other cultures.
The motion also proposed that clergy be excluded from teaching the suggested new course and that teachers for the course be selected from experts in religious education. Religious exercises, such as prayers and Bible reading without comment would not be affected by the proposal. Scarboro is a large “dormitory” suburb where, two years ago, an Anglican dean challenged anyone to come in and “remove” religious instruction from the schools of Scarboro.
At Vancourver, the British Columbia Teachers Federation adopted a resolution at its annual convention, seeking the elimination of religions exercises from the curricula of all schools. At present, the Public School Act in that province provides that the first five minutes of each classroom day be devoted to prescribed Bible reading and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer.
The 1,200 delegates at the convention approved a report stating that “the place of Bible reading and the Lord’s Prayer” is not in the public classroom. Some of the delegates specifically objected to forcing Christian religious exercises upon pupils who are Jewish, Moslem or Buddhist.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
