Thursday, July 26, 2012

Literacy Concentration Camp by John Caswell

       Today, I spontaneously offered some Brabant spring water to 3 people walking up from the dock on a beautiful hot summer day. There was a young woman  from here and her son and a young teacher.  But wait there’s more.

    I asked whether the smiley young woman teacher was running the summer literacy program I had seen advertised. She said she was. I asked whether there was any spiritual (meaning Christian ) content. She said “No we couldn’t have that in the school.” The young mother  said that would be a good idea ( to have spiritual content).

              This connected in my mind with a book I had just read by Nijole  S. of Lithuania and her trials under the Soviet Communists who sent her to prison camp for years followed by years of exile for copying a Catholic chronicle of events  They had Religious freedom there too.  Oh yes you can teach your children the faith at home. But don’t go to church  don’t send them to a religious teacher or be a leader spiritually or you will be out of a job and out of a state owned house. It sounds a bit like our experience here.

Let’s review the facts:
·        These people, the co-ordinator and assistant ,are getting paid 12-15 dollars an hour to mind the children sent to them and are paid by taxpayers. They take them swimming, play games with them and do other “literacy-related” activities.
·        They must not teach them about the Christian faith.
·        This literacy camp activity is to run all summer(6 weeks)
·        This is the time when traditionally Christian Camps are run here and other places.
·        All the people here are nominally Christian but without a priest or minister here.
·        The provincial Government has gone out of it’s way to ensure students have the full summer off. I.E. No school til after Labour day.
·        The Northern Lights School division has gone out of its way to subvert this policy here. They must have there finger on the children in every month of the year to make sure no organized Christian program occurs. As a school board chairman said here years ago “Religion has no place in education.”
·        Our Lady of the North School has a long history of running Christian camps, Vacation Bible School Bible studies and  catechism classes as well as integrating the Christian Faith into curriculum.  We see the fruit of our teaching in former students honouring marriage entering religious life and truly learning how to read and learn.
·        In The Bible Jesus says “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul.”
       
 Here in Brabant  in Saskatchewan in Canada in the Free world we are in danger of being clamped in a soft totalitarian vice which in the end is just as oppressive as The USSR. Stand up now for Christian education and values in schools. 

-by John Caswell, Principal, Our Lady of the North School