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Do publicly-funded schools create community?
Yesterday, I wrote that a discussion for another day was the question of whether publicly-funded schools were crucial in terms of creating community. And, what do you know, today’s another day.
I know most people tend to assume that sending kids with different backgrounds to school together will promote important assimilation. But people assume lots of things that turn out to be false - for example, that the earth is the centre of the universe or stomach ulcers are caused by worrying. Let’s look at the evidence.
One way to examine this assumption is to think about how many neighbourhood schools are actually composed of lots of kids from widely-varied backgrounds. These days, neighbourhood schools tend to be stratified according to income because people generally live in the same area with people of similar backgrounds. And even when it comes to schools that are composed of kids from widely-varied backgrounds, it is still a big question how much positive interaction there is among groups, especially given special programs like French immersion, gifted classes, special ed, and the International Baccalaureate. Studies in the US have found that private school classrooms are actually more racially-integrated than neighbouring public schools, while private school students are more likely to eat lunch with children of other races.
Another way to look at the social glue assumption is to see what has happened in other jurisdictions. In the Netherlands, a country with a previous history of religious strife, the introduction of fully-funded denominational and secular schools almost 100 years ago has resulted in a marked lessening of religious divisions. Yugoslavia had one state school system under the Communists for over five decades, yet the ethnic hatred there is worse than ever. There is no evidence that Ontario’s Catholic schools, or publicly-funded religious schools in Alberta, Quebec, B.C., and Manitoba are producing religiously-intolerant or disconnected citizens. In fact, several recent studies suggest that private schools are more successful than publicly-funded schools in instilling tolerance in their students.
A final way to think about social assimilation is to look at students’ entire lives. There is a very strong connection between how well a student does in school and his future employment, income, lifestyle, and social circle. If students are deliberately jumbled up in one-size-fits-all schools, some students (typically, advantaged students) will receive an education tailor-made for them - while other students (typically, disadvantaged students) will flounder. In this scenario, the children may get to rub shoulders with children from other walks of life for the 10 or 12 years they are in school, but afterwards their social stratification is stronger than ever. It’s hard to see how a deliberate policy of assimilated publicly-funded schools benefits these children.
The evidence suggests that publicly-funded schools are a very weak vessel for assimilation purposes. In my opinion, publicly-funded schools are far more suited to their original purpose - namely, giving children a good grounding in the three R’s.
I don’t know how it can create community, when the hours of operations of a school are restrictive, who is who is not allow to volunteer, and on top of having a criminal background check. Then there is the rules governing parents, and the associated thou shall and thou shall not rules. I can never understand why schools are so hard on parents who walk their child inside the school, especially if the parent is concerned with bullying. Or the parent that gets banned from the school grounds for wanting the school to do something with a bully. Or the parent that ends up getting arrested for the simple act of their child drawing a gun. Or the latest, in an American school, asking a deaf student to change his sign for his name, because it looks like a gun.
It does not promote community, especially when the rules and regulations are made by those who work within the public education system, and the same rules/regulation that are constantly shifting and changing depending on who, what it is.
Legally, a public education must take all but what they don’t have to do legally, is to prevent stratification of the students, and of course provide students with a solid education.
In my opinion, the stratification of students is far worse today, than it was in the 1980s or even back in my day. There is more intolerance, to which I blame on the social justice policies and the safe and caring policies, that in the end breeds more intolerance, especially on students who are different from the norm.
However, there is hope in the public education system, concerning small schools of 200 students or less. Better behaved students, plus school staff more willing to put an end to the small stuff, before it escalates into full blown bullying. It was not my experience, but since the local schools change their policies, such as zero-tolerance for name calling and other banned words such as shut-up or idiot, the bullying is no longer an issue at least on the school property. P.S. The schools actually does something regarding cyber bullying, and a two day suspension is the norm - no ifs and no buts.