ty
ay

William (Bill) Askin is a 28 year old
teacher from Alberta. At present, he
is running in Edmonton East as the
Communist candidate for the June
25th election. Contained in this ar-
ticle is a summary of his views on
education, as presented by himself
and other Communist speakers dur-
ing the election campaign in Edmon-
ton East. Bill Askin is a qualified
teacher with nearly a decade of prac-
tical educational experience in Alber-
ta. He has held various: posts in the
teachers’ professional body in his
province, the Alberta Teachers’ Asso-
ciation, including secretary-treasurer
of the Spirit River Local of the A.T.A.
He has attempted to bolster the Ed-
monton campaign with a_ strong
Communist position on education.

WHAT EDUCATION SHOULD AND
SHOULDN'T BE

Education, like patriotism, mother-
hood, and love is a quantity which
attracts lip-service from nearly every-
one. Even the most reactionary bigot
professes loyalty toward the lofty
goals of education. After all, who
dares come out and forthrightly states
his loyalty towards ignorance and stu-
pidity? :

However, education may serve dif-
ferent ends. It may be a liberating
factor; it may be a means by which
our rich legacy of culture, art, social

. science, physical science, language

skills, and numerous other products of
man’s creative endeavor can be passed
on to the upcoming generations. It
may be a means of developing the
faculty of critical thinking, tolerance
towards the views of others, a loyalty
to progressive-democratic ideals, and
demands for social change.

These ends of education, as reason-
able and as humanistic as they may

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 14, 1968—Page 4

seem, are not often accepted by those
in charge of the educational systems
which exist in our different provinces.
Too often, education serves opposite
ends. Too often, education is a means
by which a servile attitude towards
the status quo is taught to our youth
All too often, education is equated
with job training, and the school sys-
tem is used to provide the student
population with the skills, attitudes,
and factual content necessary to make
him an obedient, docile servitor of the
capitalist system and its power elite.

DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION VS
REGIMENTATION

At the present time, there are far
too many similarities between educa-
tion institutions, and institutions of
penal servitude and coercion. There
are certain forms of compulsion used
in prisons, reform schools, backward
mental hospitals, armies of conscripts,
and internment camps that are also
used in “educational” establishments.
For example, students at schools are
expected to react to bells and other
signals in the same way that the in-
mates of penitentiaries are expected to
respond. The clientele of a school, at
a certain age level, are like inmates of
a prison in that they are not present
through choice, but as a consequence
of state compulsion. Since universal
compulsory education is a vital social
necessity, it would be satisfactory if
the comparison between prison ser-
vitude and present capitalistic educa-
tion could stop at that point. However,
regimentation is carried on to such
an extent in our educational system
that inmates of certain prisons often
have as much to say, if not more, in
the running of their institutions as
students have at school—even at the
advanced high school and university
levels.

Of course, all rules and regulations
at a school should not be eliminated.
If this happened, anarchy would be
the inevitable consequence. But, rules
and regulations must be » democratic

in nature. Students and teachers, and
not just educational administrators,
should have a meaningful say in the
regulations governing an educational
body. Education must be democratized.

Students, at the early primary and
elementary grade levels, need guidance
and discipline. But, as these students
advance in school, democracy should
be extended to them to the degree
that they are able to conduct them-
selves in a democratic manner. At a
junior high school level, students
should be ready to participate in
meaningful decision-making in their
schools. At a high school level, stu-
dents should be able not to just par-
ticipate in the making of rules and
regulations pertaining to discipline, de-
portment, and school organization.
Students should have a major say in
the type of courses offered so that
these courses might be as meaningful,
relevant, and useful as possible. This
does not mean that high school prin-
cipals and administrators should be

"Too often education is a
means by which a servile
attitude towards the sta-
tus quo is taught to our
youth..."

completely removed from schools. But,
it does mean that principals and ad-
ministrators be handed the challenge
of providing guidance and leadership
—not the dictatorship and bureaucracy
they often provide now under the
catch-all category of “administration.”

THE TEACHER IN A DEMOCRATIZED
SCHOOL SYSTEM

The democratization of the school
system will have a positive effect on
the classroom teacher. At present, the
teacher is provided the unpleasant
duty of enforcing rules and regulations

passed down from the school board.

and the school administration. Or
the process of regimenting stude?)
as irritating and unpalatable
classroom teacher as it is to
dent. Valuable instruction time
ed up as teachers devote their ené
to weeding out smokers, cast :
down on gum-chewers, checkinb,
sons for student absences, 20
general, enforcing the dozens of aff
Jations the typical school has df |
as a means of student control.
Teachers, relieved of the ne~p
of enforcing unpopular, ane.)
stupid, rules and regulations, bd,
able to perform in a more profess
and competent manner. They Wf
and more assume the role of a
in the process of learning, 1% |
in the administrative machine) )
leaders, they will be more af@ /
willing to develop the knowlege
expertness which would give a
earned status in their classes,
undeserved, dictated status.

STUDENT DEMOCRACY AT Hf
POST-SECONDARY LEVE!

The time is long overdue fof
democratization of trade school6,
nological institutes, colleges, 2” |

is

versities. Universities, for © ‘eS
must be turned into commun,
equals at which students, profe”").
researchers, and administrato™ §
partners in the imparting and at
of knowledge, and the expansi0? "4
fields of knowledge. Boards of i)
nors, and university senates, mah
changed so that the student poP!
has strong representation on the
versity executive and legislative ? Hi
In other words, very real power if
be given to the student popu
which forms the overwhelming i
rity of the personnel at a trade so"
high school, or university.

THE TEACHING CRISIS |

If teachers at all levels are to
a true leadership role, and 00
act as classroom gendarmes, they 94
be given’ adequate ‘training. AlD® |