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Enrollments are falling in Ontario, and so there's a constant drumbeat of school closures. Here's an interesting article that points out that even very bad schools may be performing an important function in terms of being an important strand in the invisible web of social connectivity".
Which is why this article by Paul Bennett and me is worth pondering.
Schools have always been an important social function no matter the size of the community.
Cement towers of many living in sardine boxes has its own stress factors that may eventually harm the social fabric of the whole community. Attending school was a saving grace to escaped the cement towers, just as it is a saving grace for small rural communities, not to escaped but to connect to the wider community.
Sadly, no more where schools urban and rural Canada have become places of high commerce of where groups can gathered in the schools for a price. It was just last week, a missive from a phone call, a voice recording stating effective immediately, all outside groups that uses the facilities of the school are cancelled. Parents and students will be notified when and if activities can be resume. No explanation as for the reasons, and the only recourse is to picked up the phone and leave a message.
Welcome to the 21st century world of schooling. where school closures are pre-determined to rushed in the era of 21st century schooling of squeezing more into the sardine cans of classrooms without playgrounds nor the room to offered community clubs and services a place within the structure of the school. But they can for a price at the same rate of the commercial rental charge…...
And the public education system wring their hands when parents and the communities are not engaged with the community school. Who would want to, going from one sardine box to another kind of sardine box filled with so many rules, regulations and social taboos to control parents. And more importantly, when school closures are pre-determined and there is no room at all to speak about the alternatives, and no room to talk about why small schools should be the center of the community without having to pay an admission price for entry.
” Hidden deep inside the school closure crisis is the opportunity to create new and better schools. But the pain involved in reinventing schools makes it more likely that school boards will just keep on doing what they’ve always done in the past — simply closing community schools when enrolment shrinks and moving children to distant regional education centres.
Making it more painful to close schools than to reinvent them is now the most effective strategy. That’s why we support vigorous protest and resistance from the communities in question.”
Well said…
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