I read the article about Sachin Maharaj’s report on steps to improve the quality of education and skills training in Canada. As usual, your optimistic way of presenting Canada’s problems cheered me up.
I am Canadian – an Ontario Certified Teacher and wife of a doctor of functional medicine. I am writing to comment on this article.
The problem with the education system is that it is not designed to educate. It is designed to perpetuate a certain type of individual -restrained, obedient, and disciplined to be socially fit for life as an adult. Those who fail to accept the norms are often classified as suffering from a criminal disorder and receive psychotropic drugs to control them.
One of your best, the successful comedian, Russell Peters, remarked in a youtube interview that he was diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) in school. His clever parents took him out of that school and put him in a school to learn a trade. He went on to become wealthy through his true purpose in life – comedy.
Today, Mr. Peters would be assessed and sent to the medical profession for a Ritalin prescription and would graduate an addict. He would be the research partner of psychiatrists and the drug companies. I doubt that he would ever be able to make us laugh.
This is the 21st century. This public system is derelict. Scotland has graduated from that. As their Minister of Education has said: “Before, we were operating under a 19th-century definition of education, which was about restricting access and passing exams. There was a tendency to define the success of a system by how many people failed the tests. In the 21st century, I think that’s ridiculous, and we’ve moved beyond that kind of thinking here in Scotland.”
I look forward to Canada under the progressive attitudes of the South Asian people who have likely come here for something better and probably have a better education than a lot of Canadians. Don’t let Canada fall to the medical psychiatric movement that has gripped it for the last 60 years.
Katherine Jaconello
Toronto