In his landmark work,
Democracy
in America (1835), the French writer, thinker (and traveller) Alexis de
Tocqueville explained that America did not hold high esteem for the “labours of
the intellect”.
The same, I am afraid, can be said of British Columbia in the 21
st
century, particularly under the apparent leadership of Premier Christy Clark
(and former Minister of Education), who, sad to say, did not complete an
undergraduate degree. Furthermore,
Clark’s subordinate, B.C.’s current Minister of Education, Peter Fassbender, also
has no formal education, save for a High School Diploma.
Perhaps today’s British Columbia’s Teacher’s Federation
would be better off, along with B.C.’s parents, and their children, if someone
of political authority in this province had a demonstrable history of
intellectual achievement – or at least appeared
to read enough books on occasion to warrant the education portfolio.
Governments frequently go to excess in their agendas, but
one can see curious parallels between former Premier Gordon Campbell and
Christy Clark today. Gordon Campbell saw
himself as a legitimate champion of de-institutionalized (or ‘go it alone’)
approaches to mental health (after having, at a later age, dealt with his
father’s suicide). So Riverview Hospital
continued to downsize, and the Downtown East Side festered until it became a
national eyesore.
Meanwhile Christy Clark (the daughter of an impecunious school
teacher) sees her own legitimacy in battles with the BCTF (including an earlier
strike) beginning a dozen years ago. But
today’s ‘intellectual labour’ stoppage is now more than a provincial
embarrassment. Students, parents – and
teachers - are betrayed by irresponsible (and unyielding) government, which
refuses arbitration or even to sit, while the Premier continues efforts to save
face from B.C. Supreme Court rulings with a reductio
ad absurdum: save money – at all costs.
This mantra, borrowed from the Harper Neo-Conservatives, who
are well known for both their rampant anti-intellectualism and puritanism, is
now ingrained in taxpayer consciousness across the land. Clark is also capitalizing on Prime Minister
Harper’s disrespect for the rule of law and its independence, for example when
he publicly impugned the integrity of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a
Canadian precedent, thereby planting seeds in our minds of the partiality of
our judiciary.
As the old adage goes, you get what you pay for, but you
will also pay if you don’t get it, particularly when it comes to education. You cannot teach the joy of intellectual
labour in an environment when those in charge of the system abuse the public–
and I am referring, this time, to the rather uninspired political leadership in
B.C..
