And it is not the R.C. Separate System.
Many years ago, when I was engaged, I had the usual meeting with the Priest who was going to officiate at our wedding. As an non-Catholic, he wanted to know if I had any objection to our future children being educated in the Catholic School System and I told him that I did object and provided him with the usual reasons why (e.g. one inclusive system etc etc). What drivel.
At the end of our conversation – dare I say debate, the Priest confessed (pun?) that he agreed with me – to my great and pleasant surprise.
I wish though I could have that debate to do over since I now find myself in the opposing camp – simply stated, I think the Separate School System is the best thing the Province of Ontario has going in the field of education.
I continue.
My great belief in one consolidated school system lasted only until our family moved here to Ottawa in the 1980s. The area we moved into had lots of social housing and thus the local public school had a very bad reputation. Since our children had come from a village, the whole move was a great culture shock for them;to put them into the public school environment, in our area, would have been nothing less than child abuse. Our kids went to the Separate School.
Even so, I rationalized; Separate School was okay only in cases where the local public school had a bad reputation.
But over time, I would be totally won over.
As the 80s drifted into the 90s and then the new millennia, society’s elite became more and more politically correct and this change was most evident in the public school system. No more Christmas, no more Easter, no morning prayer. Sikhs could wear their ceremonial daggers, Jews could wear their yarmulkes, Muslims could have their prayer areas but Christians could have nought. Young girls could receive birth control advice and even advice on how to obtain an abortion without their parents’ knowledge. The family –just a few years prior - called the ‘foundation of society’ was now totally redefined as was the definition of marriage and the public school system soaked up these developments like a massive sponge.
The only refuge, for our kids, became the Separate School System since it continued to stand for the values that many of us continue to hold dear but now, Premier McGuinty makes no secret of his intention to dissolve it.
To do so, he is using the guise of Bullying to try to embarrass the Catholic Church over its position on Homosexuality – i.e. that it is abnormal. Which of course it is. But it is also true that the Catholic Church respects Heterosexuals and Homosexuals alike, we are all human beings equally entitled to respect and dignity.
But Dear Reader, the issue – like the pseudo issue of tuition increases for the Quebec Students – is not what’s at play here. Simply stated, McGuinty wants to consolidate education into One Common School Board (two if you count the Francophone Board) and he will do whatever is necessary to achieve his misguided goal.
Let’s look first at the Bullying Issue. Your own experience in life will tell you that there are many, many reasons why children get picked on: race, creed, deformity, mental disability, physique, personality …gay etc. Indeed, polling supports you in your thinking since it too places bullying, due to sexual orientation, well down the list. So why does the Premier focus on this one form of bullying to challenge the Catholic System, if his intentions were not otherwise sinister. Nothing substantiates this more than his enforced committee name, as per Bill 13, the ‘Gay-Straight Alliances’.
Moreover, the Catholic Church is not opposed to having Student Committees established to deal with the issue of Bullying, indeed many such committees already exist. The Church suggests that the name for this committee be ‘Respecting Difference’ – a much more encompassing name than that proposed by the Liberal Government and a name I suggest that is much more in keeping with the problem of ending bullying itself.
So in my opinion, McGuinty really does not care about stamping out bullying, rather his intention is to stamp out the Separate School System and for that he has much public support – support that is as misguided, as mine once was.
So let’s forget about Bullying – since that is not the issue that is at issue here and let’s forget about the Catholic Separate System since it is only part of the issue – at issue here – rather let’s talk about Education itself – since this is what it all comes down to.
Many of us saw the article in the paper this week where government tried to run a Tim Hortons “to make some $300k a year” at one of its hospitals. Rather than the expected profit – it lost nearly $300k.
Why are we not surprised?
And why would we entrust Government to run our Educational System – a System that in my humble opinion is the most important in society – exceeding even Health Care.
I entitled this Blog – One School System Too Many which is true in the sense that the current Public School System with all of its Political Correctness is broken and is in desperate need of fixing or deep sixing. But in truth, we need more School Systems to invoke competition and best practices into the mix.
From time to time the Voucher System has been talked about when it comes to educating our children – parents would receive a voucher and would assign it to whatever school / system they thought would provide the best education for their child. New systems would flourish under this process and the current public school monopoly would be gone for ever. Society would be the absolute beneficiary.
So why the big deal? Government has run education from the beginning and we all more or less muddled through?
Dear Reader – Society has motored on from those days. The Agricultural Era deferred to the Industrial Age and more recently that Age has been overtaken by the Knowledge Era. Countries that best educate their citizens will win out.
With advances in travel, instant communications etc. the world is ever smaller and countries are no longer just competing with their neighbours. They are competing with all others and the best educated will win out.
If you think Government is up to that challenge – go with McGuinty’s vision. But if you have a realistic grasp of reality – go with mine.
As I see it …
‘K.D. Galagher’
