Elizabeth Moore - blog 3

Reading this chapter left me with many questions about our current education system. As it says in the text, the last segregated black school did not close until 1983 (pg.79). I was not even aware that Canada had segregated schools, and was very shocked to learn that they were around for so long. The text also re-caps the terrible Japanese and Chinese oppression that occurred during the twentieth century. The video that we watched in class, “We Were Children” stated that the last residential school closed in 1996. This is a lot of racism for a country that prides itself on multiculturalism. Is there anywhere in our history of education that we can point to in order to strengthen our multicultural image?

Our education systems history does spend a lot of time and money concerning itself with the discrepancies of two religious groups, who in the end never actually formally apologized for forcing its own beliefs on another culture (pg. 77). I am however glad that Stephen Harper apologized. The only way to mend our mistakes is to admit that they happened, that they were wrong, and begin to learn from them. Any system that resembles the residential schools can never be aloud to prosper again, therefore apologies are necessary.

Apologizing is not enough however, we need to learn to become aware of the societal norms that are hurting the children we are going to be educating. The textbook mentions that mass schooling was meant to be a method of “fixing the ills of society” (pg. 82) which were blamed on “immigrant families of lower social classes (pg.82). We know that is not a correct view now, however do we even see the things we are perpetuating that may have a negative effect on the future generation? “We were Children” shows some nuns who were kind people stuck in an evil system. We need to question the system we work in and what we are teaching our students. It is so easy to look back at the past and see all of their faults, but can we see our own? We have to try in order to provide the best education possible for future generations.

Discussion questions can be found throughout this blog.