Mennonites Being Forced to Move

A group of Mennonites in Quebec are moving away from their homes because of an attempt to shut down their private Christian school. The Quebec Education Department insists that all teachers working in Quebec be certified under provincial guidelines and that they follow provincial curriculum in the classroom.

According to Ronald Goosen, one of the founders of the Mennonite community, "It boils down to intolerance to our religion."

At the moment, the school has been closed and the families are moving to Ontario, where teacher certification standards are not as strict against private schools.

Mr. Keith Wedel said, "For us, it's very important that we have our own teachers, of our own church and of our own faith, that are teaching our children. We think that having freedom of religion grants us the right to have our own school. Across the rest of Canada and the U.S., it's been granted to us. So we're hoping to receive the same thing here like we have in other provinces. If the right is granted to us to continue having our own school, then we'll move back.

A World Net Daily article states that if these Christian parents did not subject their students to learning that evolution is a fact, then the children would be taken from their parents' homes and placed in foster home situations. That is, understandably, something these parents couldn't just stand by and allow to happen.

Teacher certification and control of the curriculum are methods that are often used by over-reaching governments as a way of controlling private education. In essence, you really can't have truly private education if the teachers and the curriculum are controlled by the government. Private schools at that point become another extension of the "arm of the State."