We thought the doors would open and our son would be helped. What a joke. At that time there was only one person in the entire Coquitlam school system who was trained to teach children and she was in the district office and didn’t even see one student. When we asked to have our son’s specially trained tutor to come into the school to teach him. That request was denied. Our son’s school did not have teachers trained to help him and we were forced to do it outside of school hours.

Now think about the following facts. According to the BC government website there are almost 550,000 kids in our schools With approximately 15% of them being dyslexic that means there are over 80,000 kids with dyslexia. Virtually none of them are recieving the necessary training they need in order to read and write. But these kids are extremely bright, they just learn differently and we as a society are failing them.

The iron thing is the BC School Act preamble says:
WHEREAS it is the goal of a democratic society to ensure that all its members receive an education that enables them to become literate, personally fulfilled and publicly useful, thereby increasing the strength and contributions to the health and stability of that society;

AND WHEREAS the purpose of the British Columbia school system is to enable all learners to become literate, to develop their individual potential and to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to contribute to a healthy, democratic and pluralistic society and a prosperous and sustainable economy.

How is it we in BC have abandon 80,000 kids? And you wonder why the private school system is growing? I can answer that, because the public school system has failed our kids. We cannot afford the private school we now sent our son to but we had no choice. Many families cannot even consider sending their kids to a private school to get the help their kids need and they must watch them continue to fail. Kids are dragged through the public system and find themselves in grade 8 not being able to read or write. And you ask why the private school is growing in popularity?

There is a solution. With BC having one of the worst education systems in North America it is easy to look around and see what progressive stuff other jurisdictions are doing like testing kids in kindergarten and if they are dyslexic they get taught how to read and write a different way and there is virtually no difference between two kids, one with dyslexia and one without. Why do we abandon our kids – 80,000 of them? It is criminal.

The turban ban for safety issues, I agree with the fact that it’s ridiculous. What I do NOT agree with is the fact that Sikhs can wear a religious symbol in a sport (which is considered a neutral field)in a province that actually calls itself laïc.
If they can wear a turban, why can’t I wear my crucifix in games?

It’s also the fact that the Federation merely respected the Soccer dress code, which officially states (Rule 4) that : ” The basic compulsory equipement must not contain any political, religious or personnal statements”. It is exactly what you said in your post : a symbol of a devout Sikh, in short, a religious symbol (no offense intended).

I respect Sikhs, they’ve been with us for a long time, but simply putting a religious item in a neutral field is a no-no for me and a majority of Quebeckers (surveys).

Please understand and I invite you to read our side of the story (so sorry if it’s incomplete though you can always go on Radio-Canada in French for more info) :http://www.lapresse.ca/la-tribune/sports/201306/17/01-4661933-turban-des-amateurs-de-soccer-se-prononcent.php