Education is a fundamental building block

Mark Twain once said, “Every time you stop a school (from being built), you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It’s like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won’t fatten the dog.”

Twain, like many of the brightest and best of society, recognized the importance of education to radically alter the lives of people in society for the better. In Canada we are doubly fortunate to have a first rate public education system which allows all members of society equal benefit and equal access to education and specialized programs and schools of all shapes and sizes for those students with special circumstances who can’t thrive in a public education system.

In other nations around the world education is neither free nor has provisions for those with special circumstances. If you are poor, in other words, you will likely not go to school at all, not because you choose to work and help your family rather than attend, but because you will have no choice whatsoever.

Another aspect to education we don’t see in Canada as much is the selective grooming of students by using placement exams. In some countries in Europe, and also in Asia, if you don’t do well on your placement exams you are streamed into trades education or bracketed perpetually into a lower income level in society, all because you did not do well on an exam in Grade 6 when you were 11 years old.

In Canada we are fortunate to be able to have more time to work out our place in society through our accessible school system, and to have a college system which provides inclusive and relatively affordable education to all who have the ambition or gumption to want to better themselves. In other words, we have an education system which works toward the enhancement of all citizens at every level, not just for those who happen to be born wealthy or well-connected.

Education is not a winning lottery ticket. It is not a guarantee of future success. But without it, the road ahead leads only to a dead end. Having an education is about creating potential and possibility for a better life — it is the fundamental building block of a successful human being, and, ultimately, a successful society.