It went further, instructing teachers to “dismantle the structures and systems of white supremacy” within their own schools.

This is not an isolated controversy. Public school boards across Canada have faced growing criticism for moving beyond instruction and into ideological advocacy. Two years ago, the Ontario government intervened after the Toronto District School Board distributed a handbook asking teachers how they would challenge “white supremacy culture” in their classrooms.

To be clear, the problem is not teaching history. Students should learn about racism, discrimination and the barriers faced by marginalized communities. Schools ought to be teaching students that everyone is created with infinite and eternal worth and that treating people differently on that basis is always wrong.

The real concern is that some school boards are replacing objective education with identity politics that divides students according to race and other fixed characteristics. Public schools should promote academic achievement and independent thought, not require teachers and students to accept a particular ideology.

How did the public school system move from basic education toward this kind of conformity?

Part of the answer lies in a change in how schools approach moral education. As Canada became more multicultural, governments and education officials decided that traditional religious and moral instruction did not belong in public schools.

By removing those traditions, governments and education officials left a gap that has been filled by a new secular orthodoxy. Administrators, advocacy groups and teachers’ unions have stepped in, introducing intersectional theory and ideas about gender into the curriculum.

As a result, many parents believe they have lost control over their children’s education. Some also see a direct connection between an increasingly politicized curriculum and growing problems with classroom discipline and student performance.

In response, some families are turning to alternatives like classical education. These schools use traditional literature and philosophy to teach that life has a moral purpose. For instance, the Alberta Classical Academy is a public charter school that provides a classical liberal arts education with rigorous standards.

But the need for a shared ethical foundation is not limited to alternative schools. The Western tradition, including its Hebraic influences, has long held that knowledge cannot be separated from morality. Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the late Lubavitcher Rebbe and leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, expressed this idea by saying that education is not simply about filling students’ heads with facts — it should also help them develop the character needed to improve the world.

Public schools do not need to promote a specific religion to teach common ethical principles. Those principles can be taught without requiring students to accept a particular religious belief.

Noahide ethics, a set of universal moral principles rooted in Jewish tradition, offers one possible model. It sets out seven universal principles, including prohibitions against murder, theft and cruelty. Its starting point is that all people are created in the image of a Creator and therefore possess inherent value. That idea offers a stronger basis for opposing hatred and violence than approaches that define people primarily through racial categories.

A private school in Arizona, the Menachem Mendel Academy, provides one example of an institution built around this kind of Noahide ethical framework. Because the state’s public charter schools must remain strictly secular, the academy operates privately and is supported by parents using tuition scholarship subsidies.

Canadian families may increasingly look for similar alternatives if public schools continue to impose contested ideologies. Parents who reject those ideologies should not be forced to choose between accepting them and paying the full cost of an alternative education.

If provincial governments cannot prevent ideological overreach, they should at least respect parents’ right to choose an education that reflects their values. That could include allowing public funding to follow students to the schools their parents select. Schools would then have to compete for families, including those looking for a clear moral foundation.

Joseph Quesnel is the founding director of the Canadian Foundation for Universal Ethics Education, a federally incorporated non-profit dedicated to promoting universal Noahide ethics in Canada. A seasoned journalist and public policy analyst with more than 20 years of experience, he has provided expert testimony to both the Senate and the House of Commons.