Education Optional?

The web site http://tinyurl.com/dfetlb talks about a new law proposed in the province of Alberta that would allow parents to allow their children to "opt out" of classes that offended the religious beliefs of their parents.

According to the web site:

"The new rules, which would require schools to notify parents in advance of 'subject-matter that deals explicitly with religion, sexuality or sexual orientation,' is buried in a bill that extends human rights to homosexuals. Parents can ask for their child to be excluded from the discussion."

Of course despite being part of a human rights bill and using sexual preferences as the specific example, it applies to evolution as well.

As one blogger puts it (at http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/04/what_are_you_doing_alberta.php ):

"This is a very stupid move by stupid people that will produce more stupid people.

"It neglects a fundamental property of education: that in order to learn, you have to be exposed to many new and sometimes difficult ideas. We teach about subjects that no one thinks are good, because you need to know about them to have an informed opinion. The Holocaust was horrible and painful — shall we allow children to avoid exposure to it? Fundamentalist parents may gnash their teeth in fury at the very idea of evolution — but how can they disagree with it rationally, if they don't even know what it is?"

This is simply another example of that anti-intellectual character of religious conservatives.