In class discussion - October 22, 2009

Hello Fellow Classmates,

For my first blog I would like to comment on what took place within a classroom discussion on October 22, 2009. The issue I would like to look at had to do with a discussion around the following: Within Southern Alberta there are quite a few Hutterites, according to the link CBC News in-depth: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/hutterites/ (which gives a brief background as to who these groups of individuals are and what they stand for) in 2006 there were 3,715 Hutterites in Alberta and 5,110 in Saskatchewan. The question that was posed in our class was should these colonies have the right to run their own schools that have a completly different set of priorities than that of the Education system in place in Alberta.

According to what was said in class and what was mentioned in the CBC link above, children typically leave school at the age of 15, although some do continue on to become teachers that come back to help and teach the members of their colonies. Before I branch into my thoughts on the issue I will give a little bit of a background as to what we were discussing before this question was posed at the end of class. Our teacher was going through the history of Alberta's education system starting in 1909. In the 30's and 40's grade eight was considered graduation status. When schools were first starting up they were one room school houses. (There is a great example in Heritage Park in Calgary if you would like to see first hand what the conditions were like at this time for teachers.)

The issue was that you could not have a school district that was larger than what a student could walk to. With Alberta being as big as it is, and towns and farms being spread out over large distances, this created a problem for some students because there wasn't enough tax payers money to fund all the schools needed. (Hence having one room school houses.) These schools covered all of the grades being taught at the time by one teacher. The West in 1909 was in the stage of being 'settled by farmers' and apparently what the government was doing at the time was going to places like the Ukraine and bringing back whole villages to help with this effort. It was these different cultures that were brought back to Canada, along with many farmers at the time, that did not understand why they needed to send their children to school when they were needed as farm hands. On the family farm was where their children were taught all they needed to know according to some groups at the time.

The classical curriculum, such as Latin, did not have any relevance to their children, and it was costly to send their children to school. Paying taxes for this seemingly useless service created a backlash against the education system. Around the 1940's came the era of the school bus which eliminated the issue of students only being able to attend schools within walking distance from their homes or farms, yet the issue of cost to these students parents and the fact that they did not feel the curriculum was at all relevant remained a lingering issue. This brings me to the issue of this blog: In regards to particular groups in Alberta and Canada such as Hutterites do they have the right to their own cultural beliefs when it comes to something as universal as the Canadian education system?

This is a issue that is very hard to tackle. To begin, in Canada we have laws that protect such groups from discrimination. The religious beliefs and the way in which the Hutterite 'culture' is run within their own colonies are rights that they have as free citizens of this fair country we call Canada. Becoming a teacher, I feel that this is one the most difficult tasks I will have to face, is to be open minded when confronted with beliefs that do not coincide with my own. This is a situation where I am not in agreement with how Hutterites run their education system. For students to leave school at the age of 15 seems to create a situation where there is a lack of opportunity for these children. I feel that the 'teen' years are a great opportunity to grow and learn about ones self. As a future teacher I believe that introducing students to a myriad of subject / ideas can foster this time of personal self development. I am specializing in career coaching across the curriculum which in part looks at this issue and tries to integrate it into the education system from Kindergarten onwards. I feel that if you are living in Canada you should not have the right to trump the school system in place because of who you are or what affiliation you belong to.

On the other hand the children that grown into adults that live within this culture are taught what they need to know right within their own communities. Why would they need to attend a school that does not coincide with their culture when they are for the most part self sufficient. It does make sense that they have a self sustained community that needs to continue the way it is, if their way of life is to progress into the future intact. Yet what happens to those that choose to leave their colonies at 18 or 20? These individuals are not prepared for life outside of their colonies with just a Grade 8 education.

I would suggest, as a modest compromise, to allow some influence from Alberta Education to ensure that individuals who want to leave the colony, or are simply interested in being better educated, are made aware of the choices available outside the colony. While it is important to respect the cultural differences, I believe it is very important to allow individuals, especially kids, the opportunity to receive further education if they so desire.