Essays on Canadian Education

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

This book reminds me of a Molson’s commercial in which some of the guys are sitting around wondering what to do. But instead of reaching for a beer, Nick Kach and his friends have decided to put together a book.

In retrospect, it is not surprising that these guys opted for a less thirst-quenching alternative: all are professors of education in Alberta: Kach, DeFaveri, and Patterson at the University of Alberta; and Mazurek at the University of Lethbridge. And no doubt they all know T.E. Giles who is in the Faculty of Education at the University of Calgary while doing double-duty as the President of Detselig Enterprises (Detselig: that’s Ted Giles backwards).

It is not that the 14 individual articles in the collection are bad: most are good and one or two are exceptionally good. I particularly liked R.S. Patterson’s essays on progressive education in Canada. What has emerged from his research is that this movement in education was an elitist phenomenon that scarcely touched the average teacher, and thus, hardly warranted the scathing criticism made of it by Hilda Neatby in her famous polemic, So Little for the Mind (pp. 80-81).

The major problem of the work is that it is a grab bag of the individual interests of its authors. Thus, the topics in it range from the pieces on progressive education in Canada, to a social and economic profile of this country, to a study of education and ethnic acculturation. There is one on multiculturalism and education, others on values in education and education and the environmental crisis, and finally, an article on the state of the teaching profession.

To give them credit, the authors have acknowledged that their book is eclectic, to say the least. But to acknowledge the problem is not to excuse it. I don’t think, therefore, that outside Alberta the book will find a wide readership; inside the province is another matter. I don’t say this simply because, despite the title, most examples in the book are based on Alberta experiences. I say it because I suspect the book will be required reading on three campuses.