July, 2004
Dedicated to Preserving Family Values
P.O. Box 105, Binbrook, ON CANADA L0R 1C0
| Declaration of Spiritual Values Declaration
A Must for The Coming School Year |
| If you are like most parents in the community of faith today, you may find it difficult to express and discuss your beliefs with educators, as they pertain to their instruction of your child. In fact, you may have an image in your mind of "wild-eyed extremists" trying to sap your child's mind of all spiritual values and religious instruction, in favour of their humanistic agenda and indoctrination. Similarly, they may view you, the parent, as a "wild-eyed extremist" espousing a restrictive and Puritan agenda, resistant to their "inclusive" and "open-minded" views. With a strong possibility of a harsh confrontation looming, what is a parent to do? The Hamilton-Wentworth Family Action Council, after years of study, practice and consideration of the needs of parents, teachers, and of course, students, has formulated a document known as the Declaration of Spiritual Values. The purpose of this document is to help parents inform teachers about those core beliefs that parents find important with respect to the education of their child. It lists a number of areas which parents want to have excluded from their child's learning curriculum, while extolling the positive values upon which these exclusions are based. The Declaration of Spiritual Values achieves a number of goals. First, it makes clear to the educators where the parents want to "draw the line", without doing so in a judgmental or critical way. Second, as a prepared document, the Declaration of Spiritual Values provides parents with a simple means to enter into dialogue with educators about their spiritual and moral values, which makes it a useful assistant for parents who find it difficult to articulate their beliefs and their child's needs. The Declaration of Spiritual Values, when used in the spirit in which it has been developed, can be used to help parents and teachers reach an amicable agreement about the course of the child's education. It can also help educators become more tolerant of the Judeo-Christian values and beliefs of their students' families, in a firm yet non-threatening way. HWFAC recommends that parents seek to have the Declaration of Spiritual Values included in their child's OSR, so that this statement of their beliefs will follow and continue to influence the child's path of learning throughout their time in the Public School system. The Declaration of Spiritual Values document can be obtained by downloading our PDF from the HWFAC website. It includes a cover letter written to the educator, and a glossary of terms to help both you and school authorities to understand clearly the tenets of this important document. Please obtain your copy today, and seriously consider making the Declaration of Spiritual Values a key component of your child's education. |
Top of Page
Back to Newsletter Articles Main Page
Back to HWFAC's Home Page