BLOG - Chapter 1 - p. 1 - 13
After reading the introductory chapter of Sociology of Education in Canada, I was shocked and dismayed to learn about the blatant inequality that had taken place at the Attawapiskat First Nation in Northern Ontario. As I read about the circumstances that the students in Attawapiskat had to endure while attending school in "temporary" portable classrooms, I could not help but pause and consider the the elementary school I attended.
These students did not have a school building, but a series of unconnected portables that acted as classrooms. The school I attended seems privileged when it is compared to the description of the school in Attawapiskat, as described by Linda Goyette in Canadian Geographic. She describes the yard of the school as "barren, with no swings, no slides, no monkey bars, no baseball diamond or soccer field" (5). It is hard for me to imagine recess at school without a playground; my school had two play structures and a large field to play various sports. This school also did not have a library, which to me is the heart of the school, I can picture children gathered around the librarian on the carpet listening to a read aloud. When comparing this school to my school experience I am at a loss to find any similarities. As a student, I did not have to concern myself with issues such as being cold in an uninsulated portable, or having to run in the winter to the nearby community centre for phys. ed. An important aspect of this, which speaks volumes to me, is that this school had to be shut down because it was built on contaminated land. And it appears to me that this was known prior to building the school.
If this had been a temporary situation for students, it would have been a manageable situation but, "the school was officially closed permanently in 2000... and [the portables] were still in use in 2012" (4). Despite promises from the federal government to build a new school in 2010. I agree with Shannen Koostachin that "education is a Human Right" (5). These students should not have had to endure what they did, especially for the length of time that they did.
This introductory chapter has opened my eyes to one recent inequality that a First Nations community had to deal with. I hope that as I continue reading this text that other educational issues will be brought forth and discussed. I feel that it is important to enlighten our thinking to what has happened in the past so that moving forward we do not repeat the same mistakes.
Discussion Question:
Should First Nations education continue to be the responsibility of the federal government when it fails to address basic necessities of its students?
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