Thanks to Linda Ward Selbie for the link.

Reposted from:
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/259739


Children from kindergarten to Grade 4 say the opening prayer in the library for the Primary Praise hymn-sing every Friday morning at Knox Christian School in Bowmanville.

Bibles open to Genesis, teacher Betty-Anne Rozema is telling her Grade 4 class at Knox Christian School what God promised Noah.

"God made a covenant – that means a promise – that He would never destroy the Earth with a flood again," she says as she walks among the desks checking Old Testament worksheets for this daily Bible class. "And I believe Him."

Up shoots a hand.

"But there was that flood in Peterborough!" notes a boy.

Without missing a beat, Rozema responds, "That's true, but God promised not to flood the whole Earth again."

At this sprawling country school, where 134 families from Newmarket to Bowmanville pay up to $12,500 a year to give their children a Christian education, the word of God strikes a daily truce with the news of the world.

Harry Potter is banned from the library – some families feel it glamorizes evil – but kids can bring their own copies to read.

Christmas is celebrated – Jesus, not Santa – but Halloween is not, to respect those opposed to its focus on fright.

The Bible is a considered a textbook here, just like the Math Quest, Spelling Workout and Language Power books students use to follow the Ontario curriculum.

You'll hear the word "God," but you won't hear the teen mantra "Oh my God!" That would be taking the Lord's name in vain, explains 11-year-old Meg Loudfoot, "which breaks one of God's Ten Commandments" and will lead to a chat with the principal.

"We do say `Oh my gosh,'" she admits, "but we pronounce the `sh' really carefully so people know what we're saying."

It is here, in a school where psalms are written on the blackboard beside the day's homework, where the younger grades hold a Primary Praise hymn-sing every Friday and where staff often start a parent-teacher interview with a prayer, that Ontario's debate over faith-based schools gets most tricky.

As the closest religious cousins of publicly funded Catholic schools, it is in schools like this, whose students hail from more than 20 congregations such as Baptist, Pentecostal and Christian Reformed, where the lines between private and public schools seem blurred.

Both Catholic schools and Protestant schools, such as Knox, hold prayers, teach the Bible for about a half hour each day, hire Christian teachers, infuse the Ontario curriculum with Christian values, hold worship services and teach that God believes marriage is between a man and a woman.

"I'm a little surprised (Premier) Dalton McGuinty says faith-based schools promote social segregation," muses principal George Petrusma, "because he's the product of a faith-based system – the Catholic system."

Does Knox Christian promote social segregation?

"Go to any public school cafeteria and you'll see kids segregate themselves, even though they're in the same building, " says Andrew Flint, whose four children attend Knox.

"I think my children are going to come out of here more open – and more equipped – to meeting other kinds of children just by knowing Jesus as the Messiah said, `Open your arms.'"

But while they're here, there's one faith on show. Every teacher hired must be a "believing Christian" who will start first period with a devotional message, offer a prayer before lunch dismissal and another before the final bell – including hopes for a safe bus ride home.

There is a comfort level, say students and teachers, in being among those who share your religion.

"I come here because other Christians are here. It's just so much more comfortable because I'm around students who understand," says Grade 7 student Kevin Small. "You're not scared you're going to be left out because you don't, you know, take drugs or alcohol."

Does he ever play with kids of different religious backgrounds?

Sure, on his rep soccer and hockey teams, "where only one player comes from my school." But he says what he likes about being at school with fellow Christians is "if you feel down, anyone will help you. And you can trust your friends to keep a secret."

Meg plays hockey with public school kids, whom she sometimes asks not to swear, with little success. "We're not, like, perfect or anything – we look the same walking down the street as other kids – but I just love it here because we can talk about God and not get funny looks. When my friend was upset the other day, I told her, `Don't worry, God will help you.' It was reassuring for her to know God cares."

What Knox Christian parents are paying for, and what Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory wants to fund, is education through a religious lens. But does that lens change the education?

Like grades 7 and 8 students in Ontario's public schools, Knox students are told abstinence is the healthy choice for teens.

Like their Catholic school counterparts, they also are told during health class that sexuality is a gift from God meant for a man and a woman who are married.

"Write on the board that No Sex + Married Sex = Safe Sex" reads the health curriculum document used by many Ontario Christian schools from the U.S.-based Christian Schools International – meaning that truly safe sex is either no sex, or sex within marriage.

"We say, God made sex — Yay God!" says teacher Stephen Janssen. "But He meant it as an expression of love between a man and a woman who are married."

Like Catholic schools, Knox teaches the Bible does not endorse homosexuality, but gay people are to be treated with respect and slurs aren't to be tolerated.

To Lawrence Hellinga of the Dutch Christian Reformed Church, who sent his four children to Knox and has two grandchildren there, John Tory's offer is a mixed blessing.

"We don't just sprinkle Christianity on top of the curriculum. It's a lifestyle here and I'd feel quite leery about the government sending us money if they wanted to tell us what we can teach," said Hellinga.

"It's not one hour of Bible study. The whole school is permeated with a Christian flavour."

Says principal Petrusma, "We do real school here.

"Two plus two still equals four. But it comes down to our world view: How did 2 plus 2 come to be four?

"That's part of God's creation."