Public education has a long history in Canada that has been shaped by ongoing immigration and increased diversity as our nation continues to grow.

By the time my family immigrated here in the 1950′s, education was finally something accessible to all children. The quality still had a very long way to go in many school districts, but society had come to the belief that education was a right for all children.

My generation was priviledged by generous government investment at all levels providing a truly well rounded education, and more students were graduating and benefiting from the collective investments in schools across the country.

When my daughter begins school this September, she will be the third generation in our family to attend a public school in Canada. Sasha, born early into a new millennium, is part of a generation that will experience “21st Century Learning”.
And what is that you ask?

Well, that is still up for debate all over the developed world and two movements are now vying for control over the future of what education will look like for us.
Both have different ideas about what public schools are good for.

One wants to build on successes of the public system we currently have and is primarily made up of people who are involved within the daily workings of the system. The other wants to open the entire system up to a consumer model and is primarily made up of showcase celebrities, free market economists and conservative think tanks.

Chronic underfunding for decades has turned parents, teachers, trustees, and students into entrepreneurs helping to raise funds for things that were part of the status quo when I was in school. And as schools struggle to do more than ever for our communities with fewer resources than ever before, I have become stuck on an important question:

Things got better between my mom’s generation and mine, so why is my daughter’s generation getting shafted?

Rather than letting our public education system get nickle and dimed to death, I feel its time for Canadians to decide what kind of system for learning we want to invest in.

I believe that a holistic public education system is far more beneficial to Sasha’s generation than a competition based model, and I want to encourage Canadians to be a part of the debate in their own communities to help us shape and invest in the sustainable “21st Century Learning” of our nation.

For more information please contact kathy@educate-me.ca