As most of my readers know, I have been steadfastly against the Government of Alberta's passing of Bill 44. It has been written about by many of the provinces best bloggers and journalists, so I won't get into all the reasons why this is bad legislation. What I really want to talk about is how this unecessary legislation is being seen for what it is by our young people, and the PC Party may not realize it, but they have just planted what could be serious seeds of discontent among the future electorate.
Tonight for the first time I asked my daughter if she had heard about the law. She is in Grade 10 at Strathcona High School and I shouldn't have been surprised when she said that all of her friends were buzzing about it. The school, and her friends in particular, are an engaged and informed bunch. It would probably be a stretch to say that they were offended as much as I have been, but they were still shocked that it had passed. I find it interesting that a bunch of 15-16 year-olds were actually talkking about the law. Their teachers of course were discussing it with them, and not to inflame the discussion but to express their concern about how they will apply it in the classroom. In Grade 10 as an example, many of the topics that the law is set to impact are being discussed. English (the curriculum includes reading and discussing Inherit the Wind, a novel on the Scopes Monkey Trials), and Biology (a whole unit teaching evolution), and Social Studies (which she said is all about opinions and debate on same-sex rights, religion, etc.).
My daughter said it best when she said "how can students make an informed decision about what they believe when they are only hearing one side of the argument". She told me that among all of her friends, and the classes where they discussed it, there wasn't one child who thought the law was a good idea. That doesn't surprie me for a couple reasons. Firstly, I have always believed that young adults are more open to multiple viewpoints, and especially sympathetic to oppressed groups. If racism is any example, major improvements in social tolerance and acceptance can be made over a few generations. Smoking, drinking and driving, racism, and sexual orientation are all examples of this.
Secondly, I believe that no matter what a child is taught at home, they are now exposed to media, movies, television and the internet enough that they will always hear about the other side of any argument. I think kids have chosen to use the classroom and the internet as a place to shape ther own opinions. Teachers by and large are excellent moderators of this formative thought and at least my kid looks up to them as their educational guidance counsellors. She is aware enough to see that this law puts the teachers in a very dificult spot. To the extent that my daughter actually understood her teachers would have to send home permission forms for so much more now, and that they are exposed to "getting sued" as she puts it. This is not my teachings on her, these are all things that she had become aware of on her own, and her and her fellow students are actually upset about.
I firmly believe that the majority of Albertan's feel the same about this law. As proof, I asked he if she was aware of any student ever removing themselves or having to be removed from a subject. She said that she was not aware of it ever happening. So that in itself tells me that this law is unnecessary, and only a very small contingent of very social conservatives are driving this change. So what is my point?
I think that this law is going to turn out to be very bad politics for the Alberta PC Party. I think that by standing their ground on this, they are ignoring the tidal wave of social evolution, and have drawn their line in the sand about 30 years behind where they should be. That may take some time to catch-up with them, as most older generations don't see it as offensive as it really is. But I think that our young people do. They base their character development on information that flows to them from 1000's of sources every day. To react to that, we actually see them forming their own "classrooms" and discussion groups. The facebook group to protest Bill 44 by students is a perfect example. It grew rapidly and exponentially (5500 and counting in two weeks), and kids joined because they wanted to get behind a cause. No parents, schools, teachers, church or Government will be able to stop this. What really inspires me is that all of the rallying and cause support I have seen from the younger generations are based on altruistic beliefs of fairness, hope, charity to disenfranchised groups etc.
Social media communities in particular are an atruistic new landscape. If you speak in extremes, and insult or isolate any of these groups, you will be called out harshly and have 100's or 1000's of voices on you right away. Social media communities have proven that they are very good at self-policing themselves, because we all want to maintain our "followers", and acting extreme or rude to others will have you losing "friends" rapidly. This be-nice or lose popularity effect is actually making our children better citizens (or netizens).
So we may not be wise enough to see the World as our children do, but I am willing to bet that when they get to voting age, and start to transfer their learned approach of tolerance and open-mindedness to the political sphere, the decisions made by our PC party now will be admonished.
As of today, I am choosing to be one of this new generation, and will start to think of ways to hold this Government accountable for this step backwards. I just want to be on the right side of the debate when our young Albertan's hit voting age.
