One of the pleasures of fall this year (for me) was witnessing one of my granddaughters return from her first day of school. As her school bus rattled away, there she stood, a smile as wide as her beautiful face would allow: imagine, school!
Our little welcoming party accompanied her up the lane to their farmhouse, listening to every detail. When we did reach the house and the big, high-ceiling’d kitchen, she was not about to let this big day escape. We had to sit down and get colouring, each of us, with a glass of juice.
This moment was, no doubt, played out across our Pontiac, across the Ottawa Valley, across all of Canada. Likely not all were such happy events, but they could be – and should be. “Should”, because this is the start of one of life’s profound experiences: School. Education. Careers.
Why this is so exciting to me is because, on a social level, this is one of the first steps in community-building. One of the reasons Canada is such a strong nation is our sense of community – spreading over such a large spread of the northern hemisphere. Canada is the destination of so many people uprooting themselves from their homes, families, from their own communities.
I have often wondered what they must think when they hear Canadians complaining of Canada being “broken” or dominated by elites.
These kids – future citizens – are learning the value of “government”: one providing the good educational system that our government has created. Yes, many kids are home or privately schooled, but isn’t this their parents’ decision? Ask any kid if they’d prefer a school full of kids or not! And we would not have as good an educational system as we do, if it was not organized and financed by something as large as a government.
The public school system’s lesson is the value of community. That’s the lesson that teaches us the strength we build by working with others – plus a clear message of the value and integrity of each individual. What greater message is there? We achieve this by means of a government which has the ability and reach to achieve what we wish.
Our government today goes out of the way to stress the value of individuals. Religions are given leave (even given help) to thrive, including in their role as teachers. Many provinces, like Quebec, fund private religious educational institutions. This is hardly oppression or arrogance on behalf of government.
Yet there are many Canadians who are convinced that ANY government is bad and oppressive – just as the anarchists believe. Politicians play to these folks – while running to become the next government! Irony here? No, they’ll say: “We’re different; we won’t be oppressive.”
Isn’t it time that we grew up and stopped looking for the one simple solution that explains everything?
Just fix one thing, and the world will be fine! Wouldn’t that be nice. Let’s celebrate our community. Let’s value our real community here, and work to improve it right from its
beginning in every town, neighbourhood, and country road, on that first day of school.
