Mandy Marchant: History of Education in Canada

While learning about the history of education in Canada, I was interested to hear about other cultures experience in the education system. In high school and throughout university I was educated on residential schools so I was aware of the First Nations struggle with education in Canada. I found it interesting that African American children experienced public and administrative segregated education, even though there were governmental policies for equality. Canada prides itself as being a safe haven for African Americans during slavery in the USA, but realistically their education system resembled the segregation experienced in America.

Throughout the reading it has amazed me how long it took Canada to recognize the injustices of its education system and how they could continue to segregate cultures until the end of the 20^th century. The last residential school was closed in Saskatchewan in 1996 and the last segregated African American school was closed in Nova Scotia in 1983. During the 1980s and 1990s it was noted that these types of social behaviours were deemed immoral and unjust, so how come it took so long to demolish these institutions? Furthermore, the Constitution Act was signed in 1982, which included the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and both of these dates succeeded this federal promise of human rights protection. This type of segregation on the basis of race was an infringement on these Canadians human rights.

Something I was left wondering about was the Manitoba’s School Question. In previous studies I have scratched the surface of the issue but have never fully learnt about it. I certainly never learnt about it in high school. If this occurred in Manitoba, wouldn’t it be worthwhile for Manitobans to be educated on their own history? Especially since the chapter deems this situation as “the most famous controversy in the history of Canadian education” (pg. 67).

Discussion Question: The chapter states that mass schooling was a way of, “entrenching a certain type of values on the growing Canadian population: middle class, British, and Christina (usually Protestant)” (pg. 82). Do you think that education in Canada or Manitoba functions to promote a certain set of values on the Canadian population today? If so, are these values positive or negative?