Perhaps now is the time to look at the way our school system is run. Here we have both of the school boards wanting to build schools in the Erin Ridge division of the city. Do we really need two new schools? Or is this just more evidence of duplication on religious grounds?
Is it time to think of education in a more secular way? I am not saying have no religious content — ethics and morality are definitely part of society that we need to nurture — but is it not time to adopt a more community approach? Let us have schools in communities that nurture the need of those living in the neighbourhood. There are libraries in schools that could be more broadly used and school buildings with all kinds of potential that are underutilized.
I just wonder how much administrative work is being duplicated and at what financial cost? How much of a rift is being created among children by this desire to create a specific religious milieu? Do we ask our children how different they want to be or feel and in the long run what kind of a society does that encourage?
Already there is some dissatisfaction in one of our school divisions where a parent is asking for a choice in education because of this very religious situation.
Let us examine what we are really doing in the name of education before we go on blindly asking for dollars that satisfy theological belief first and then social need.
Elizabeth Allchin, St. Albert
