As for separate schooling...

Apparently, every group society needs its own school. The Toronto Star reported this week that plans currently underway to build a school in Niagara specifically for students from low income families whose parents didn’t attend college or university are being criticised for segregating and isolating students. (http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/932340--debate-heats-up-over-niagara-school-for-poor-kids )

Well, of course they are. These schools are purposely segregating and isolating particular students in an attempt (misguided or not) to increase their chances of graduating and escaping from the stigma of being poor, and people like Ontario Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky have every right to call them out on it.

But it isn’t as if Canadian schools don’t already have a precedence for separating and isolating students based on labels that are pretty much irrelevant to education. In Quebec, there are language laws that prohibit francophone children from attending English primary and secondary schools. Elsewhere in Canada, there are Catholic schools, and sure, a parent elects to send their child there or not, but its still a case of segregating students.

It’s harder to fight the fact that a parent wants their child to attend a school that emphasises particular aspects of education over others, but the fact remains that students might be better served by time and money spent creating a single school system that educates everyone rather than dividing everything down random, superficial lines.