Re: starting single-sex classroom
Janice Wallace (jwallace@oise.utoronto.ca)
Sat, 21 Feb 1998 16:17:00 -0500 (EST)
Regina Mundi was once a private men's college which is now a
co-educational publicly funded Catholic secondary school in Ontario. In
Canada, our educational governance is under provincial jurisdiction. At present,
our provincial government is dominated by a majority neo-conservative party
which has introduced some (arguably) draconian legislation which has
resulted in board amalgamations and an increasing centralization of power
over almost everything including finance, standardized testing, and
curriculum. One of its first pieces of legislation was to revoke equity
employment legislation, including any references to it in our Education
Act and Regulations. However, gender equity initiatives in classroom
practice have been left more or less alone in both policy and practice.
We have no legislation forbidding single-sex schools/classes and there
are some quite exemplary ones in place. They're rare but there. I guess
the approach that has been taken could be characterized as more both/and
than either/or in terms of approaches to delivering equitable educational
opportunities. How long we will enjoy this freedom is anybody's guess.
Characteristically, though, Canadians are more comfortable with
collective identity with less emphasis on individual freedoms. As a
result, acknowledging systemic discrimination is somewhat less
problematic than may be typical in the U.S., but it's still an uphill
climb.
Janice Wallace <jwallace@oise.utoronto.ca>
On Thu, 19 Feb 1998, Linda Purrington wrote:
>
> Is this a single-sex female classroom? Is Regina Mundi a Catholic
> private school, or a public school? Does Canada have anything resembling
> Title IX and laws against gender apartheid in public schools?
> Linda Purrington, Title IX Advocates <lpurring@earthlink.net>
>
>
> Janice Wallace wrote:
> >
> > Just an addition to marcia's note, the school she refers to is called
> > Regina Mundi right here in London, Ontario and its phone number is
> > 1-519-685-2133.
> >
>