Our education is in decline as well

Re Trump’s appeal not hard to explain, Letter Dec. 23 As a dual citizen (Canada and the U.S.) I agree with the explanation of reader Douglas Buck regarding the appeal of Donald Trump to white men with little education who live in areas where good blue-collar jobs have disappeared. In Toronto, it was largely the same group that voted for the Ford brothers.

My concern is that the value of good education is being significantly reduced in Ontario. In the 1960s the requirements included senior history and geography courses in high school, but these requirements have long been cancelled, which has meant reductions in those departments.

Those courses are important for people to understand other areas and cultures in the world: That ignorance was demonstrated by the NDP candidate who didn’t know about the Holocaust. Also courses like physical and health education, music, art, dramatic arts, not to mention industrial arts and home economics, have been cut, if not removed, because they are considered “frills.”

I know many adults who are earning good livings in these fields because they were introduced to them in school. Even if people don’t use them to earn a living, they are more aware of the skills these fields require, which makes them more interested in supporting them, adding significantly to the economy.

Significant cutbacks, including no restriction on class sizes, have put our public school system at risk, resulting in the reduction of enrolment in public schools and increasing enrolment in private schools. So many cuts have been made to education in Ontario that students from the lower middle class and lower class are being denied the calibre of education that Ontario students could access a generation ago, when people who came from families with little money were able to get a good education and get good jobs.

Good public education is essential to a good democracy. Karen Whitewood, Toronto