School trustee wants anthem sung a capella

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TORONTO, April 12 (UPI) -- A Toronto Catholic school board trustee wants students to sing the "O Canada" national anthem each morning instead of just listening to it from a recording.

Trustee Angela Kennedy of the Toronto Catholic District School Board told the Toronto Star few, if any students sing along to the standard CD version of the anthem.

"I think it makes people lazy and the expectation is that people not sing," she said. "It's unpatriotic, and I think as educators we need to be instilling some better values around patriotism and good citizenship."

One city Catholic arts-based elementary school, St. Vincent de Paul, already requires students to sing the national anthem every morning, alternating between French and English each day, the Star said.

As part of the musical theater program at the public Etobicoke School of the Arts, senior students perform the anthem in jazz, rap, Celtic and other variations for marks.

Teacher David Ambrose told the Star "there are days when it crashes and burns … (but) most of the time it's pretty high quality."