EDUCATION REFORM IN CANADA

Education Reforms in Canada

Nineteenth Century Education Reform in Canada

Introduction

Canada has always been diverse, from its Aboriginal, English and French origins to the integration of European immigrants to the recent influx of immigrants from around the world. Common schools, regardless of religion, social class, sex and skin colour is the official embrace of diversity by politicians, bureaucrats and intellectuals in the guise of official multiculturalism in 19th century.

Discussion

Religious, social class, sex and skin colour discrimination in Canadian schools in 19th century can be seen as a vicious circle that ultimately keeps needed funds from those who might need it the most. The historical period of slavery in this country marks the beginning of the cycle because it was during this period that Africans were denied the right to education. It could be argued there is an unconscious thread that continues to perpetrate/penetrate people's belief system, such that as a society, policies are made that deny/prevent equal education and funding for black students (Berry and Blassingame, 1982). Today, the evidence of discrimination can be seen in the contrast of run-down, rodent and insect infested school buildings provided for poor black inner city students to the clean, modern buildings provided for white suburban students. It can be found in the contrast of tenure of teachers for each group, or even the amount of money a district provides to the school for books, playgrounds, and/or academic programs. Beyond these points, however, there remains a myriad of political, social, and economic reasons that maintain education discrimination in our society.

Multiculturalism had become Canada's self-defining slogan in 19th century educational reform, extolled by state officials and media as our major (and perhaps sole) collective virtue. To declare one's loyalty to diversity has become a latter-day pi-ety. Within the circles of professional educators, diversity is championed under the rubric of multicultural and anti-racist education. Aimed largely at immigrants, multicultural education is premised on the notion that by revising teaching styles, reshaping the con-tent of history and literature and diversifying the racial composition of teachers, schools will foster greater tolerance and equity among Canada's ethnic groups. Multiculturalism is said to be a cure for the problem of differential access to schooling. Activists assert in categorical terms that whites have far better educational opportunities than visible minorities, and this alleged disparity is taken as direct evidence of discrimination. Our schools discriminate, it is argued, because everything about them is rooted in a white, Judaeo Christian culture. Our standards, curricula, rules, goals, notions of development and teaching methods are all said to have a European essence that is foreign to minorities and, taken as a whole, they send the hidden message that minorities possess an inferior cultural heritage. This is said to mentally disable minority students and condemn them to permanent marginality in the labour market.

The schools were an important component of mission work with indigenous children, though most had closed by the 1850s. Infant schools for European children continued as an infants' ...