Week 9: Town Hall

This week volunteers and attends a Vancouver’s Education Town Hall about Parents’ Control in Curriculum.

There recently was an event held my an running MLA in Point grey-UBC Vancouver about education at the Hellenic Centre where interested parties, including educators, politicians, experts and parents addressed the importance of parents’ influence on their children’s education. The two-hour town hall revolved around the balance between school curriculums and parental influence. It was interesting to see interesting talking points honestly from both sides but as this was an event held by the conservative party of BC there is bias that needs to be taken into account.

Collectively, from what I had witnessed the importance of parents being given some authority over their children’s education was the primary issue, with an almost unanimous understanding that such involvement allows education to be more valued, funded and most of all removal of ideological influence. In this case about the SOGI Curriculum, a surprising amount of parents stressed the significance of ensuring education mirrors familial values and cultural backgrounds. There was also talk about sexual education and gender being kept outside the classroom and not in control by the state. Although at first I was not completely convinced on the subject as its been proven that sex education leads to smarter choices and more informed youth, but examples of VERY sexually explicit homework and reading for a young audience (elementary and middle) about sex positions and how to preform sexual acts seemed disgusting and wrong to me. This was shocking to me as these were examples from parents in my district!

At the meeting’s core was a shared plea for a more adaptable academic model, incorporating parental insights while upholding educational standards. This at least to me marks the beginning of a turn Vancouver’s education, hopefully leading to more discussions and actually allowing parents to have a say in what is taught.