Overdue Assignment: Taking Responsibility for Canada's Schools

Dennis Blake is a visual arts teacher with the Halton Board of
Education.

The late 1980s and early 1990s, a period marked by discontent over the
quality of education being provided in Canada, have spawned a wide range
of books on the subject, ranging from the self-serving to the
prescriptive. This coolly written analysis of the current state of
education in Canada stands apart from much of the empirically flimsy
work that crowds bookstore shelves.

Lewington and Orpwood, passionate advocates of educational reform,
argue that reform must be a product of a national social consensus on
what education should be asked to provide, that this consensus needs to
be implemented within a flexible, responsive, and accountable school
system. That the issues addressed are complex and often necessitate at
least some prior knowledge is a strength, not a weakness, of the book.
Education is a process of nation-building, and the authors’ measured
and progressive analysis of the problems and solutions does a credible
job of sustaining the focus on key issues. By avoiding a “politics of
blame” approach, they manage not to inflame but rather to educate.
Overdue Assignment is a must-read for all Canadians.