Students in Ontario Can Now Opt Out of Religion Classes at Catholic Schools

[NeoGreen]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/06/15/students-in-ontario-can-now-opt-out-of-religion-classes-at-catholic-schools/

Students in Ontario Can Now Opt Out of Religion Classes at Catholic Schools
June 15, 2017 by Hemant Mehta

In Ontario, where Catholic schools receive public funding, a settlement by a Human Rights Tribunal has paved the way for students to be exempt from religion classes without punishment.

Claudia Sorgini filed the complaint last year when she began her senior year at St. Theresa’s High School in Midland, Ontario, part of the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School District.

She, like approximately half the students in her thousand-member class, wasn’t Catholic, but attended the school anyway.

(Why would a non-Catholic student attend a Catholic school? There are a number of possible reasons. It’s closer to home, the school board encourages it, they get more funding, they’re better run, etc. The point is: It’s not weird for non-Catholics to go to Catholic schools in the province. For the most part, Catholic schools and secular schools are identical.)

Sorgini took religion courses throughout high school because she thought they were mandatory — and did very well in them — but realized that they were actually optional. So her senior year, she requested an exemption so she could sit in on a science class instead. That’s when the problems began.

[Iggo]

1. "Why would a non-Catholic student attend a Catholic school?"

Because their catholic parents send them there.

Catholic parents make catholic children.

[Doreen]

2. My sister in law is a Lutheran pastor in Portland Oregon.

My brother and her sent all of their kids to first the German American school then when they got to the age of high school they went to a Catholic high school. Private schools tend to have a higher rate of graduates and be more ready for college classes. The education is more intense and they do not deal with some of the bull that public schools deal with. Kids from private schools including Catholic pass college entry exams more easily and with higher scores. They did have to take religion classes but they did not really mind because it gave them knowledge on another religion besides their Lutheran religion. My niece ended up going to a Catholic college also.

[Duppers]

3. "bull that public schools deal with"??

Such as?

Imo, taking religion classes is bull crap.

Parents who can afford private schools for their children usually value education more and are more involved with their kids. Degree of parental involvement is the answer.

- mom of public school kid who now has PhD in theoretical physics.

[Lordquinton]

5. There are reasons for all of that

And it's less to do with better schools, and more to do with the ability to manipulate the numbers. If a kid is testing low they can be kicked out (through channels, natch) they can pay teachers less, and now still receive public funding. Public schools also get Draconian restrictions placed on them from people benefitting from the privitatization (look at Duvoss) and often only get funding relative to the wealth in the area.

So they seem to perform better, then it's just conformation bias.

This is also in Canada, so these things don't even apply.

[Mr.Bill]

4. Many Atheists that I have known

went to Catholic school. I went to one through the sixth grade, even though I was an Atheist even as a child. Once when we moved to a different state I had to go to a public school because the Catholic school had a waiting list. I was in the third grade I went there for six weeks. The principal at the public school called my parents in for a meeting. They wondered what kind of trouble I was in. He told them they wanted to advance me two grades.

I once worked with a guy who was a real bible-thumping evangelical Christian. He said Catholic school is where they train Atheists.

I just realized when typing this post that if you have spell check on it will automatically capitalize Christian but not atheist.

[rurallib]

6. Well as an atheist with 12 years of catholic schools

I must agree with the bible thumper.