There have been comments made by members of the Avon Maitland District School Board, members and staff, that "ordinary" people should leave school administration up to them, the experts who understand the issues and are wise by virtue of their membership in AVMDSB.
That attitude is sheer arrogance - a stance that people fall back on when they are incapable of explaining or justifying what they are doing.
I also want to make it clear that many of the most adamant critics of this Board are knowledgeable and experienced people in the field as former board members, current and former teachers and officers in this and other school systems.
As for me, I believe that my background entitles me (with a touch of arrogance) to at least comment on what is happening to our schools. I have the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Education, Master of Education. I have taught in elementary schools, high schools, college. I have worked as a curriculum and language arts consultant, and was a superintendent of education. I was a senior administrator in one of Ontario's community colleges. In the course of my work in these positions, I also served as an advisor to provincial educators on education in remote northern Ontario schools.
And I am also one of those ordinary people who feel strongly about our community, its families, and its children.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Municipalities and Religion
Fortunately, most nations of the western world have maintained a clear separation between church and state. We see many nations where lack of that separation causes many problems for both the quality of governance as well as for religion.
At the more local levels - school boards, county and municipal councils - the process of separation has been at times a contentious issue, and in a few instances there remain a few vestiges of the old links between the civic and faith realms. The elimination of scripture readings and the Lord's prayer from public school classrooms has been achieved, although we continue to hear a few individuals complain about the change - in most cases because they do not really understand the reason for it.
A few years ago I was asked to speak at an in camera session of a county council (not Huron County). I was shocked when the meeting was opened with everyone being asked to rise and repeat the "Our Father". I can imagine the commotion that would arise if someone on that elected body were to make a motion that this practice be eliminated, yet it is clear to me that such a motion is long overdue.
Here is my reasoning.
County councils, like all municipal councils, are created to serve their entire community. To maintain a tradition of opening each meeting with a Christian ritual is a clear signal that this court is giving special and discriminatory recognition of a group of people of a particular religious tradition. All other religious groups are thereby diminished in the status they enjoy within that community. The situation also suggests that "this council is not prepared to welcome non-Christians as members of this body even if they are elected by their community".
We live in a pluralistic society made up of people from many faiths as well as those who follow no religion, and our laws and charters guarantee that none of us should be discriminated against for the orientation choice that we make. Those who do not subscribe to the religion "favoured" by their local government may well feel that they are regarded as a sub-class of citizens.
I am proud of the fact that most Canadians have accepted the separation of religion and governance in most regions and in most respects, and they understand the reasons for supporting this ideal. Many years ago working in other parts of Ontario, I experienced many heated debates on these matters, but those days have passed. Today virtually everyone understands and accepts the nature of our current society. They understand that the debate was not a pro-church versus anti-church debate, but rather a move to eliminate significant signs of religious intolerance in our local government operations.
At the more local levels - school boards, county and municipal councils - the process of separation has been at times a contentious issue, and in a few instances there remain a few vestiges of the old links between the civic and faith realms. The elimination of scripture readings and the Lord's prayer from public school classrooms has been achieved, although we continue to hear a few individuals complain about the change - in most cases because they do not really understand the reason for it.
A few years ago I was asked to speak at an in camera session of a county council (not Huron County). I was shocked when the meeting was opened with everyone being asked to rise and repeat the "Our Father". I can imagine the commotion that would arise if someone on that elected body were to make a motion that this practice be eliminated, yet it is clear to me that such a motion is long overdue.
Here is my reasoning.
County councils, like all municipal councils, are created to serve their entire community. To maintain a tradition of opening each meeting with a Christian ritual is a clear signal that this court is giving special and discriminatory recognition of a group of people of a particular religious tradition. All other religious groups are thereby diminished in the status they enjoy within that community. The situation also suggests that "this council is not prepared to welcome non-Christians as members of this body even if they are elected by their community".
We live in a pluralistic society made up of people from many faiths as well as those who follow no religion, and our laws and charters guarantee that none of us should be discriminated against for the orientation choice that we make. Those who do not subscribe to the religion "favoured" by their local government may well feel that they are regarded as a sub-class of citizens.
I am proud of the fact that most Canadians have accepted the separation of religion and governance in most regions and in most respects, and they understand the reasons for supporting this ideal. Many years ago working in other parts of Ontario, I experienced many heated debates on these matters, but those days have passed. Today virtually everyone understands and accepts the nature of our current society. They understand that the debate was not a pro-church versus anti-church debate, but rather a move to eliminate significant signs of religious intolerance in our local government operations.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Re-Inventing Blyth - Again!
It seems clear now that Blyth Public School is doomed.
No manner of argument, debate, discussion, pleading caused even a ripple of interest or concern in the Avon Maitland District School Board. The board's feeble gestures of consultation and review of the process of closing schools have so far proven to be empty pretences and false imitations of democratic community consideration.
Closing the school in a community tears the heart out of that community. As an educator, I am sure that the closure will have a negative effect on the education of our children. The long term effects on the community are daunting. They could include loss of businesses, reduced property values, loss of inflow of young families who will shy away from a community with no school for their children. The presence of a vacated school has the same effect as a business district with many vacant retail buildings; it could be seen by many people as a sign of a dying community.
Blyth will survive. Our children will get an education of sorts. But the village will be diminished. We will not forget the sense of abandonment when we recall what the school board, people who were supposed to represent us, did to us, and the fact that the majority of our own municipal council turned their backs on us in the end. Well at least we have a little better idea of where we stand.
Most disappointing is the fact that only a small fraction of members of the community showed up to express their outrage at this attack on our community.
What we need to do now is figure out what we can do to overcome the loss that we are about to experience. We need ideas, creativity, and lots of discussion to come up with a vision of new Blyth. We need dozens of ideas to be discussed, studied, compared, evaluated, weighed, until we come up with a handful of great prospects from which we can choose one or two or three that stand out as WINNERS! Along the way we may come up with a few additional ideas which will be easy to implement, not too demanding of time and energy, and which will contribute to the new community.
By referring to the "new Blyth", I am not implying that we throw away what we already have. We must build on those great assets that we have developed and fostered.
No manner of argument, debate, discussion, pleading caused even a ripple of interest or concern in the Avon Maitland District School Board. The board's feeble gestures of consultation and review of the process of closing schools have so far proven to be empty pretences and false imitations of democratic community consideration.
Closing the school in a community tears the heart out of that community. As an educator, I am sure that the closure will have a negative effect on the education of our children. The long term effects on the community are daunting. They could include loss of businesses, reduced property values, loss of inflow of young families who will shy away from a community with no school for their children. The presence of a vacated school has the same effect as a business district with many vacant retail buildings; it could be seen by many people as a sign of a dying community.
Blyth will survive. Our children will get an education of sorts. But the village will be diminished. We will not forget the sense of abandonment when we recall what the school board, people who were supposed to represent us, did to us, and the fact that the majority of our own municipal council turned their backs on us in the end. Well at least we have a little better idea of where we stand.
Most disappointing is the fact that only a small fraction of members of the community showed up to express their outrage at this attack on our community.
What we need to do now is figure out what we can do to overcome the loss that we are about to experience. We need ideas, creativity, and lots of discussion to come up with a vision of new Blyth. We need dozens of ideas to be discussed, studied, compared, evaluated, weighed, until we come up with a handful of great prospects from which we can choose one or two or three that stand out as WINNERS! Along the way we may come up with a few additional ideas which will be easy to implement, not too demanding of time and energy, and which will contribute to the new community.
By referring to the "new Blyth", I am not implying that we throw away what we already have. We must build on those great assets that we have developed and fostered.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Gulliver's Travels Revisited
The Avon Maitland District School Board is on a very mindless and destructive course, hell bent on destroying communities and down-grading our education system.
Tiny minds tend to focus on one thing at a time in order to simplify a complex issue. The AMDSB board and senior staff are illustrating this tendency. They are focussed on the numbers - numbers of children and numbers of desks, classrooms, and schools. Don't talk to them about other facts or issues no matter how relevant they may be. They just can't handle more that one facet at a time.
They have told us that they are not interested in what happens to our communities or their economies even though closing a school damages a community and its economy. "We are concerned only with children and their education. The community and its economy are not our concern." Never mind that these children live in these communities and are affected by their economies.
What a surprise to learn that they have already picked a site for a new school and the plans are all drawn up! Well not quite all the plans. They are not sure where the roads are going to be to get to the new school in Wingham.
They must have scoured the entire countryside to find architects that are equally adept at ignoring facts that confuse tiny minds. When asked about where the roads will be placed to handle traffic to and from the school, the architect replied, "We don't build roads; we build schools". With any luck the new school will remain inaccessible and we we will have to fall back on our previously condemned schools.
In the meantime, we will be further increasing our carbon footprint by having to run buses for almost every child in the county.
The eighteenth century satirical novel by Johnathan Swift describes our school board quite well. In Gulliver's Travels, the hero finds himself in the land of Laputa. It is a country ruled by a king and noble persons whose minds are totally immersed in numbers and music theory. So enrapt are they that each of them requires two servants to accompany them to remind them of what they are doing. The servants carry a kind of rattle to tap on the noble person's mouth, ears, or eyes to remind them to talk, listen, or watch where they are going. When Gulliver was talking to the King, for example, the latter would forget what they were discussing and who he was discussing it with, until the servants would apply their rattles.
While the nobility are constantly and mentally solving complex equations, they lack the ability to actually apply the results to any real project. As a result their buildings are unsound and their tailored clothing never fits.
The rulers live on an island that floats in the air. It is a perfect circle, four and a half miles in diameter. They are able to raise, lower, and move the island in any direction within the boundaries of the country below. The common people live on the land below, and they provide the rulers with food and whatever else is needed to live.
If any community on the ground does not contribute support, or is in rebellion, the rulers will move the island over the offending town, and if they still fail to comply, the island is slowly lowered onto the community crushing all of its buildings and its people. End of revolt!
Like AMDSB, the Laputans are obsessed by numbers to the exclusion of all other matters, they don't listen well, they are disconnected with the reality of the area for which they are responsible, on a whim they can crush any community they wish, and they answer to no one, and they tax their people without representing them.
Tiny minds tend to focus on one thing at a time in order to simplify a complex issue. The AMDSB board and senior staff are illustrating this tendency. They are focussed on the numbers - numbers of children and numbers of desks, classrooms, and schools. Don't talk to them about other facts or issues no matter how relevant they may be. They just can't handle more that one facet at a time.
They have told us that they are not interested in what happens to our communities or their economies even though closing a school damages a community and its economy. "We are concerned only with children and their education. The community and its economy are not our concern." Never mind that these children live in these communities and are affected by their economies.
What a surprise to learn that they have already picked a site for a new school and the plans are all drawn up! Well not quite all the plans. They are not sure where the roads are going to be to get to the new school in Wingham.
They must have scoured the entire countryside to find architects that are equally adept at ignoring facts that confuse tiny minds. When asked about where the roads will be placed to handle traffic to and from the school, the architect replied, "We don't build roads; we build schools". With any luck the new school will remain inaccessible and we we will have to fall back on our previously condemned schools.
In the meantime, we will be further increasing our carbon footprint by having to run buses for almost every child in the county.
The eighteenth century satirical novel by Johnathan Swift describes our school board quite well. In Gulliver's Travels, the hero finds himself in the land of Laputa. It is a country ruled by a king and noble persons whose minds are totally immersed in numbers and music theory. So enrapt are they that each of them requires two servants to accompany them to remind them of what they are doing. The servants carry a kind of rattle to tap on the noble person's mouth, ears, or eyes to remind them to talk, listen, or watch where they are going. When Gulliver was talking to the King, for example, the latter would forget what they were discussing and who he was discussing it with, until the servants would apply their rattles.
While the nobility are constantly and mentally solving complex equations, they lack the ability to actually apply the results to any real project. As a result their buildings are unsound and their tailored clothing never fits.
The rulers live on an island that floats in the air. It is a perfect circle, four and a half miles in diameter. They are able to raise, lower, and move the island in any direction within the boundaries of the country below. The common people live on the land below, and they provide the rulers with food and whatever else is needed to live.
If any community on the ground does not contribute support, or is in rebellion, the rulers will move the island over the offending town, and if they still fail to comply, the island is slowly lowered onto the community crushing all of its buildings and its people. End of revolt!
Like AMDSB, the Laputans are obsessed by numbers to the exclusion of all other matters, they don't listen well, they are disconnected with the reality of the area for which they are responsible, on a whim they can crush any community they wish, and they answer to no one, and they tax their people without representing them.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Blyth Politics of the Past: Two Armed Camps
A few decades ago, Blyth was a hotbed of political intrigue. Elections were fought as if there were no tomorrow unless your side wins. Whose side you were on made a difference. It affected where you did your shopping, to whom you spoke when you walked down the street - or ignored as if they were not there. Alliances were formed as a means of improving your side's chances at the polls. We told everyone about mistakes the other guys made, and when we ran out of them, we made up some more and spread the word.
As a young child belonging of course to "our side", I was frequently reminded by "their side" that I was not as good a kid as I should be. One of their employees stopped his truck one day to tell me that if it were not for the dairy on our street, he would not have plowed the snow from it. On one summer day I was walking down the street and a woman from their side came out on her porch and shouted at me using some very raw language and some words that I had never heard before. I have no idea why I was chosen for this attention apart from the fact that I was on the other side.
Election days (which came around each year in December) often ended with a huge argument over how the votes were to be counted, and complaints that the other guys were doing something illegal.
If you were a town employee and were identified with one side, you could be sure that the other side would be looking for a chance to replace you with one of their friends.
Nomination meetings were very well attended, and many were nominated for each position. Not everyone agreed to stand, but there were very few acclamations. If someone resigned before the term was up, the person who came next in the voting would often be appointed to fill the vacancy.
You might ask what all this partisanship was based on. I don't have the answer to that. It was not a Liberal-Conservative divide. It was not a matter of commercial rivalry. I have no idea what caused the rift. It was akin to chosing sides for a game of soccer in the school yard. I am sure that some people in the village were not involved in the division and may not have even been aware of it. But a very significant portion of the population was linked to one side or the other.
I have been thinking that it's too bad that we could not recapture that enthusiasm for local politics - so long as we could eliminate the vitriol and the bickering and the senseless and petty actions that took place in the background.
Blyth people need to get engaged in the life of this community AS AN IMPORTANT PART OF NORTH HURON.
Amalgamation is a fact of life whether we like it or not. Burying our heads in the sand will not make it go away.
As a young child belonging of course to "our side", I was frequently reminded by "their side" that I was not as good a kid as I should be. One of their employees stopped his truck one day to tell me that if it were not for the dairy on our street, he would not have plowed the snow from it. On one summer day I was walking down the street and a woman from their side came out on her porch and shouted at me using some very raw language and some words that I had never heard before. I have no idea why I was chosen for this attention apart from the fact that I was on the other side.
Election days (which came around each year in December) often ended with a huge argument over how the votes were to be counted, and complaints that the other guys were doing something illegal.
If you were a town employee and were identified with one side, you could be sure that the other side would be looking for a chance to replace you with one of their friends.
Nomination meetings were very well attended, and many were nominated for each position. Not everyone agreed to stand, but there were very few acclamations. If someone resigned before the term was up, the person who came next in the voting would often be appointed to fill the vacancy.
You might ask what all this partisanship was based on. I don't have the answer to that. It was not a Liberal-Conservative divide. It was not a matter of commercial rivalry. I have no idea what caused the rift. It was akin to chosing sides for a game of soccer in the school yard. I am sure that some people in the village were not involved in the division and may not have even been aware of it. But a very significant portion of the population was linked to one side or the other.
I have been thinking that it's too bad that we could not recapture that enthusiasm for local politics - so long as we could eliminate the vitriol and the bickering and the senseless and petty actions that took place in the background.
Blyth people need to get engaged in the life of this community AS AN IMPORTANT PART OF NORTH HURON.
Amalgamation is a fact of life whether we like it or not. Burying our heads in the sand will not make it go away.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
A New Thought About the School Situation
Let’s All Cut Our Losses
Let me make clear at the outset that I represent only myself. If I get my facts wrong or misrepresent some group’s position on the school situation – blame me.
I sent an email to Jenny Versteeg, the chair of Avon Maitland District School Board a few days ago. The message reflected my usual impatience and anger against the board for deciding to close the Blyth Public School and for the potential closing of the Brussels Public School. It was not a very polite letter.
In a very short time, I received a reply from Ms. Versteeg. It was a lengthy, very polite, clear and logically developed presentation of the board’s process and position. I still strongly disagreed with their conclusion, but the message caused me to re-think the situation.
Naïve or not – this is what I came up with.
As things stand now, everyone is losing: the AMDSB, the children, the parents, the communities, local businesses.
As for the school board – they are almost universally detested throughout our communities, and these feelings will remain for a very long time. Their image falls into the same category as those who pushed us into amalgamations, ultra large health units (LHINs), attempted hospital closings, etc.; remote, uncaring, bureaucratic, meddlers who, we feel, have no business attacking our communities, ignoring our wishes and needs.
Our children are losers in that none will be able to walk to school, they’ll be separated from many of their friends, infants will spend hours travelling by bus on school days.
I don’t need to repeat the complaints raised by parents of the children. We do not want our Grade 7 and 8 children in F.E. Madill and we are under no obligation to fall in line with other jurisdictions that permit this arrangement.
Communities will become unattractive to young families who will not care to move to a town that has no school. Property values will decline. Businesses will see a loss in commerce for this and other reasons.
A JUDGMENT ERROR BY THE LOCAL COMMITTEE
I believe that the ARC team gave the board permission to close the Blyth School when they promoted the idea of a Super K to 8 School which would replace several area schools including that of Blyth.
True, they gave this option given the prospect of replacing the schools with what to them was an exciting new vision of an institution which will represent an advance into a high value educational experience made possible by an innovative building and innovative teachers using innovative methods. They were turning a perceived problem into an opportunity.
The board perhaps should have realized that the agreement on closing the school was contingent on the super school being part of the deal.
It seems to me this is a time when some negotiation should be considered. Negotiation could avoid the situation where everyone loses.
Huron County, North Huron, Huron East cannot tolerate the losses of Blyth and Brussels Public Schools. If Blyth and Brussels lose their schools, the losses are not confined within their borders; they extend out into the rural area surrounding them, most residents of which see these villages as the centre of their communities.
Let’s hope that there are some statesmanship displayed in the next few weeks, regardless of what comes from the current review of the Blyth School decision.
Let me make clear at the outset that I represent only myself. If I get my facts wrong or misrepresent some group’s position on the school situation – blame me.
I sent an email to Jenny Versteeg, the chair of Avon Maitland District School Board a few days ago. The message reflected my usual impatience and anger against the board for deciding to close the Blyth Public School and for the potential closing of the Brussels Public School. It was not a very polite letter.
In a very short time, I received a reply from Ms. Versteeg. It was a lengthy, very polite, clear and logically developed presentation of the board’s process and position. I still strongly disagreed with their conclusion, but the message caused me to re-think the situation.
Naïve or not – this is what I came up with.
As things stand now, everyone is losing: the AMDSB, the children, the parents, the communities, local businesses.
As for the school board – they are almost universally detested throughout our communities, and these feelings will remain for a very long time. Their image falls into the same category as those who pushed us into amalgamations, ultra large health units (LHINs), attempted hospital closings, etc.; remote, uncaring, bureaucratic, meddlers who, we feel, have no business attacking our communities, ignoring our wishes and needs.
Our children are losers in that none will be able to walk to school, they’ll be separated from many of their friends, infants will spend hours travelling by bus on school days.
I don’t need to repeat the complaints raised by parents of the children. We do not want our Grade 7 and 8 children in F.E. Madill and we are under no obligation to fall in line with other jurisdictions that permit this arrangement.
Communities will become unattractive to young families who will not care to move to a town that has no school. Property values will decline. Businesses will see a loss in commerce for this and other reasons.
A JUDGMENT ERROR BY THE LOCAL COMMITTEE
I believe that the ARC team gave the board permission to close the Blyth School when they promoted the idea of a Super K to 8 School which would replace several area schools including that of Blyth.
True, they gave this option given the prospect of replacing the schools with what to them was an exciting new vision of an institution which will represent an advance into a high value educational experience made possible by an innovative building and innovative teachers using innovative methods. They were turning a perceived problem into an opportunity.
The board perhaps should have realized that the agreement on closing the school was contingent on the super school being part of the deal.
It seems to me this is a time when some negotiation should be considered. Negotiation could avoid the situation where everyone loses.
Huron County, North Huron, Huron East cannot tolerate the losses of Blyth and Brussels Public Schools. If Blyth and Brussels lose their schools, the losses are not confined within their borders; they extend out into the rural area surrounding them, most residents of which see these villages as the centre of their communities.
Let’s hope that there are some statesmanship displayed in the next few weeks, regardless of what comes from the current review of the Blyth School decision.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Minister Wynne Replies About School Closure
I have received a three-page letter from the Minister of Education Wynne in reply to my complaint about the imminent closure of Blyth Public School. Ms. Wynne tells me what I had already learned: that school boards have the absolute authority to close any school they wish. I will quote one paragraph from her letter:
“It is to the benefit of all students that locally elected boards are allowed to operate with a level of autonomy and are provided with the authority and responsibility to make decisions regarding the most appropriate pupil accommodation arrangements for the delivery of their elementary and secondary programs.”
In theory, this is a good model: a local body provided with the authority and responsibility to make decisions, this body ostensibly being accountable to the electorate for their actions. Unfortunately, we, the electorate were asleep and did not realize that the people we elect to the school board actually had the power to make so much mischief and outright damage to our community. Perhaps even the board members did not realize that they would be called upon to make such decisions as have been thrust upon them.
The result of our negligence has thrown us into a terrible situation. We have ended up with board members who have failed in their accountability to the communities they are supposed to represent; board members who can be led around by the nose by board staff who have no sense of community and can hide behind the board.
Blyth is obviously a victim of this mixture of its own inattention, spineless board members, and bureaucrats who are incapable or unwilling to comprehend the place of the school in communities.
It appears that the same fate may be in store for Brussels. If this is the case, it would appear that there is an anti-village agenda at work here.
Huron County is a very rural community. It contains no cities. Ignoring the imposed amalgamations for a moment, it is a county of 5 small towns and 5 smaller villages, with all of the land in between comprised of rural, mainly agricultural townships. All of those descriptions have made us subject to many government, economic, and commercial assaults many of which have had devastating effects on our way of life, our economy, and our local political system. What is especially depressing about this school situation is the fact that the damage is being done to us by our own people. Even our M.P. and M.P.P who should be supporting us vigorously are less supportive than we expect.
As I have written before, we need a strategy to cope with this type of assault if we are going to survive and thrive as a community. We need a methodology to get messages back to those who threaten us. We need to find ways to force them to pay attention. Failing those efforts, we need to devise ways to “put a burr under their saddles”. Make life uncomfortable for them, embarrass them, whatever it takes to force them to re-think their irresponsible policies and practices.
In the present school case, the only solution is to change the minds of the board members. Solid arguments and reasoning do not seem to penetrate. They should be ashamed of themselves, but are not. Stronger measures will be needed.
We need to a strong level of support from the residents of our communities, from local councils, from our M.P.s and M.P.P.s and from other rural counties and small communities.
I am still waiting for a member of the school board to come and tell us why she allowed the board to close the Blyth Public School and to send our children helter skelter in all directions for their education.
“It is to the benefit of all students that locally elected boards are allowed to operate with a level of autonomy and are provided with the authority and responsibility to make decisions regarding the most appropriate pupil accommodation arrangements for the delivery of their elementary and secondary programs.”
In theory, this is a good model: a local body provided with the authority and responsibility to make decisions, this body ostensibly being accountable to the electorate for their actions. Unfortunately, we, the electorate were asleep and did not realize that the people we elect to the school board actually had the power to make so much mischief and outright damage to our community. Perhaps even the board members did not realize that they would be called upon to make such decisions as have been thrust upon them.
The result of our negligence has thrown us into a terrible situation. We have ended up with board members who have failed in their accountability to the communities they are supposed to represent; board members who can be led around by the nose by board staff who have no sense of community and can hide behind the board.
Blyth is obviously a victim of this mixture of its own inattention, spineless board members, and bureaucrats who are incapable or unwilling to comprehend the place of the school in communities.
It appears that the same fate may be in store for Brussels. If this is the case, it would appear that there is an anti-village agenda at work here.
Huron County is a very rural community. It contains no cities. Ignoring the imposed amalgamations for a moment, it is a county of 5 small towns and 5 smaller villages, with all of the land in between comprised of rural, mainly agricultural townships. All of those descriptions have made us subject to many government, economic, and commercial assaults many of which have had devastating effects on our way of life, our economy, and our local political system. What is especially depressing about this school situation is the fact that the damage is being done to us by our own people. Even our M.P. and M.P.P who should be supporting us vigorously are less supportive than we expect.
As I have written before, we need a strategy to cope with this type of assault if we are going to survive and thrive as a community. We need a methodology to get messages back to those who threaten us. We need to find ways to force them to pay attention. Failing those efforts, we need to devise ways to “put a burr under their saddles”. Make life uncomfortable for them, embarrass them, whatever it takes to force them to re-think their irresponsible policies and practices.
In the present school case, the only solution is to change the minds of the board members. Solid arguments and reasoning do not seem to penetrate. They should be ashamed of themselves, but are not. Stronger measures will be needed.
We need to a strong level of support from the residents of our communities, from local councils, from our M.P.s and M.P.P.s and from other rural counties and small communities.
I am still waiting for a member of the school board to come and tell us why she allowed the board to close the Blyth Public School and to send our children helter skelter in all directions for their education.
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