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This 2012 Patheos article claims Section 16 of Alberta's 2012 education act it forces parents not to teach that homosexuality is a sin as part of their official schooling, but I can't confirm it.

Oddthinking
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Jacob Blaustein
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  • Found it. It's right [here](http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/Acts/e00p3.pdf) (page 26). – Reinstate Monica -- notmaynard Aug 01 '17 at 20:47
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    How is it possible to teach about certain religions (even, or perhaps especially, if one does not follow them or agree with their beliefs), without mentioning those beliefs? – jamesqf Aug 02 '17 at 18:14
  • @jamesqf - Teaching "religion X believes that homosexuality is a sin" (not sure why that would be part of a standard curriculum, but still) is different than teaching "homosexuality is a sin. FACT." – PoloHoleSet Aug 08 '17 at 17:25
  • @PoloHoleSet: You break the prohibition into two parts, neither of which are prohibitied. 1) General religious knowledge curriculum during school days: Christians believe homosexuality is a sin, Muslims believe drinking alcoholic beverages is a sin, Buddhists believe swatting flies is a sin. 2) Outside the school: We're Christians, kids. (Which is basically how schools tried to get around the US ban on religion in the classroom. Every Wednesday afternoon they'd walk us over to a non-school building for religious indoctrination.) – jamesqf Aug 09 '17 at 03:46

1 Answers1

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The claim on patheos.com has quite a bit of hyperbole.

The Province of Alberta's 2012 Education Act can be found here. The relevant portion (Section 16) states

Diversity and respect

16

(1)

All courses or programs of study and instructional materials used in a school must reflect the diverse nature and heritage of society in Alberta, promote understanding and respect for others and honour and respect the common values and beliefs of Albertans.

(2)

For greater certainty, the courses or programs of study and instructional materials referred to in subsection (1) must not promote or foster doctrines of racial or ethnic superiority or persecution, social change through violent action or disobedience of laws.

Note that this only requires that the instructional materials do not promote various viewpoints that could be construed as hatred (racial or ethnic superiority) and must be respectful of others. It also only applies to instructional materials. This does not prevent parents from imprinting their own personal views.

The concern shown on patheos.com seems to be about homeschooling students. However, even if students that were home-schooled were exposed to viewpoints that violated section 16, it would be impossible to determine if it was as part of their formal education or as part of family time.

DenisS
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  • Also, does homeschooling count as "in a school" for the purposes of this act? – Ben Barden Aug 02 '17 at 12:58
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    @BenBarden it seems to be a grey area. Officially, homeschooling parents are required to keep personal beliefs that may fall under this act "separate" from schooling. This would probably prove to be unenforceable as an outside observer would be unable to distinguish between something a child picked up from homeschooling versus something a child picked up from "family time". – DenisS Aug 02 '17 at 13:53
  • @DenisStallings - I don't think they care if the person learned that in one form or another. They are simply talking about what gets to be considered part of an officially approved home-schooling curriculum. – PoloHoleSet Aug 08 '17 at 17:27