Class Warfare: The Assault on Canada's Schools

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

Class Warfare presents some very intellectually provocative arguments on
the inherent dangers of letting big business dictate “necessary”
changes to a school system under fire from all directions. The authors
argue that dissatisfaction with schools is a product of media (read:
big-business) manipulation and that many complaints about schools’
inferior practices are demonstrably myths. Although they have some very
good arguments, especially when recounting the less-than-altruistic
reasoning that lies behind business interests in education, the authors
are wide of the mark. To argue that the “perceived” shortcomings in
the school system are merely business conspiratorial myths is to avoid
the very real problems that exist in Canadian education.

The authors’ attempt to rally the forces of responsibility to reject
a right-wing corporate agenda is laudable, but the rejection of that
which is shallow does not address the real problem of school systems,
which do no more than reflect the confused society that surrounds them.
Barlow and Robertson go too far in dispelling as myth the problems of
today’s schools.