Panelists:
Facilitator: Pedro Barata
Terry Wotherspoon, Professor of sociology, University of Saskatchewan
Marie Pierce, Executive Director, Canadian School Boards Association
Peter Donnelly, Director, Centre for Sport Policy Studies, University of Toronto
Schools don’t just affect society — they’re a microcosm of society, for good or bad. That was the consensus at the Public Education and Recreation seminar Thursday afternoon.
Terry Wotherspoon said schools should encourage “participation both in its own right and as a gateway to broader participation.”
Despite disagreements on what an inclusive school should look like, everyone agreed that the failure of schools to be inclusive has a long-term effect on the inclusiveness of society at large.
“The question is how to include schools in our community, so they don’t just pump kids into the economy, but so that they’re more than that,” said Pedro Barata after the discussion.
Marie Pierce stressed that those parts of the education which have been considered “extras” are a fundamental part of the work of the education system.
“Our education system is not solely concerned with academic development. Citizenship is equally important.”
Pierce, like her colleagues on the panel, spoke of citizenship as an inclusive concept. The qualities of an inclusive society, she said, are the qualities of an inclusive school: acceptance of diversity, sharing of responsibility, and mutual respect, among others.
An inclusive society must also eliminate practical barriers. The Canadian School Boards Association just finished a two-year study of the effects of poverty on education. “Inclusion”, in the minds of many school administrators, had always referred to special education. Now, Pierce said, schools are being forced to broaden their horizons.
“School systems are not solely about education. Schools have to deal with children who are hungry, who are coming to school without adequate winter clothing, who are coming to school with learning disabilities.”
Peter Donnelly argued that without access, questions of participation become moot. Access, he said, is increasingly threatened because the world of recreation is shunted aside or put out of reach of disadvantaged people.
“Sport is the biggest part of the voluntary sector, and yet it’s marginalized.”
His experience in the world of sport has convinced him that user fees, reliance on private-sector funding for recreation and the elimination of extra-curricular activities in schools will exclude many children. Some children’s path to the worlds of work and higher education, and to self-esteem, comes through recreation.
Donnelly pointed out that in Ontario, there is a generation who will have spent a good chunk of their school years without extra-curricular activity because of the work-to-rule policy adopted by Ontario teachers in response to the Conservative government’s polices over the last two years. In fact, all the speakers and the participants in the discussion found themselves returning to the broader policy context, especially when they mentioned resources.
Nonetheless, all the speakers said they found reason to hope in the willingness of most players to talk about social inclusion. “I’ve worked with school boards for 15 years, and I’m still optimistic,” said Pierce.
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