There are a couple of things in the news these days that have me reflecting on the value of public schools as a space for learning tolerance in our society.
First is the nightmare in Norway where so many passionate youth and everyday citizens met a violent end at the hands of a man consumed with hatred for multiculturalism, and Muslims specifically. In his manifesto he copies the language of many extremists that came before him, and with a conviction that lives on in other men who fear a world that isn’t white and Christian.
Secondly, in our own country the debate over prayer in schools is heating up in Toronto after one public school was found to be providing space for Muslim students to pray in the afternoon. Specifically in a province that actually has a seperate school board system for Catholic schools (funded as part of the public system) this feels like a big double standard. We can’t say its ok to have religion in public schools for one faith and then not provide space for all faiths. But how much responsibility should schools have to be that space?
This land did not begin as a white, Christian nation and it never has been. That is not the only profile that defines “Canadian”. This country has been shaped by the First Nations and waves of immigrants from all over the world for many generations. We are not homogenous in culture, religion or class and we are continually shedding racism and descrimination that has evolved here, along with those beliefs brought here with every new wave of immigration.
Our diverse cultural landscape requires tolerance and understanding to navigate. The reality is we are all in this country together. Our public schools help build connections with people and provide the opportunities to learn from people we wouldn’t meet through our family and/or spiritual communities alone.
It’s easy to fear your neighbours if you’ve never met them, and you know nothing about where they came from other than what you’ve seen in headlines when tragedy strikes their homeland.
Though there are still improvements that can be made, overall public schools have successfully taught many of us how to get along, even when our parents (or other people of influence in our lives) taught us we shouldn’t “because they’re ___”. Each generation becomes more tolerant of the differences around them the more multicultural we become.
Having grown up in Toronto I believe that I benefited so much from my early exposure to other cultures and ways of seeing the world through my friends of different backgrounds. School was a safe place for us to meet and learn from each other. And I’m happy that when my daughter begins Kindergarten this fall she too will benefit from living in a multicultural community and learning from others at her school here in Vancouver.
While multiculturalism is a fact of life in most places and all schools will continue to find ways to embrace it, the one thing Canadians do need to decide is where to draw the line between public schools and religion. How much spiritual choice should we offer and just how seperate do we want them all to be?
I would argue its much harder to understand each other if we all grow up in our own silos of faith and culture and never mingle at all. The more choice we are offered that divides us, the harder is to see all that we have in common. At the community level many of our hopes, wants and needs are the same.
Perhaps it is possible to find some common ground among faith values that all kids can learn (like stealing is bad, compassion is good) with space in schools to teach some basic foundations of different faiths that foster these values? Not to preach and convert in any way, but to foster understanding so maybe, one day, we can end that cycle of children who grow up to be adults consumed by violent fear and hatred towards others based only on their skin colour or religion.
