"Only once we possess a strong knowledge of our history, are we able to better understand the present and make alterations to prepare ourselves for the future".
Being a teacher, we are a part of something much larger than our classroom or our school; we are part of the educational system of Canada. Every child under the age of eighteen is required to obtain an education, and except for a few cases, they will be receiving this knowledge from us. Knowing the history of the educational system allows us to develop a greater understanding of the policies, principals, and teaching methods that are present in today's schools.
Canada is a fairly new country that was created by many cultures of immigrants, and this has lead us to become the beautiful mosaic which we are. With each of these groups of immigrants came their values, beliefs, religion, and educational tradition. Over a few classes we were introduced to the educational traditions of French, English, Scottish, and the First Nations people.
The religious component of the French and English traditions played a strong role in our countries school system for a long time, and in some places it still exists. When I was attending Manitou Elementary School the prodestant religion was a small part of our daily routine, however it still did exist within the school. Every morning after singing O Canada, we would recite The Lord's Prayer and listen to our principal read us a passage from the Bible. When education began in the prairies, instruction was primarily religious. Catholic religion came first and then the Prodestant religion followed. In today's public schools, many different religions exist, so schools have begun eliminating all religions from their classrooms, in order to prevent offending anybody and their beliefs.
I feel that the school system of today's world has many similarities to that of the Scottish tradition, where the focus is on that of the whole child. Gender or class structures did not exist in this educational tradition, as in today's school system. Almost all kids attended school, similar to today's law that requires all students to be in school until the age of 18. The curriculum of the Scottish tradition included both science and art, rather than just the basics of the three R's. Today's schools include programs such as health, physical education, art, music, band, home ec. and shops to help develop all aspects of the child. This Scottish tradition was less religiously strict compared to the French and English traditions, which helped to solve some of the problems that religious differences were causing.
Even though we have many similairities to the Scottish tradition, I feel that our society could have been greatly benefited by incorporating some aspects of the education tradition of the First Nations people. Assimilation did irreparable damage to not only the culture of the First Nations people, but to all other cultures of Canada as well. First Nations people taught their children the things that they needed to live in their society: unity of all life, honourable conduct, family responsibility, individual responsibility, the importance of sharing, self-reliance, and survival skills. I believe there are many students that did not possess many of these skills today, even though they are the basics to being a contributing member of society. Each of these skills would be very beneficial for the students in today's school system to learn.
In our multicultural country, we have amalgamated many traditions together with the product being the school system we will currently teach in. It is great to reflect back on the many traditions that formed the base of our education tradition. It's really inspiring to see how far we've come from the days of class and gender separation in school and strict routines to our present system, where the learning abilities of each child are considered when we are educating our students to achieve their potential. There is a large variety of amazing schools, exceptional teachers, and brilliant instructing methods and material in our education system today, and all of these trace back to the beginnings of education from our founding countries.
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