WHO: The future for our children

Education law is a dynamic, invigorating and intellectually stimulating discipline because it is constantly evolving to meet the needs of today’s schools. The merits of its decisions aside, one has only to read recent Supreme Court decisions in such areas as the role of the teacher, searches in schools, or school funding. In light of these cases amongst others, educators are now charged with the task of developing and implementing policies that will enhance the school environment for students, teachers and staff. Perhaps the only constant in education law is that as it evolves to meet the demands of a constantly changing world, it is likely to remain of utmost importance for all of those who are interested in children. In fact, the seemingly endless supply of new statutes, regulations, cases and government directives speak of the need to be ever vigilant of how legal developments impact the law. The challenge for all educators, then is to harness their knowledge of this ever-growing field so that we can make the schools better places for all of our children. Two men were fishing by a stream when an infant floated past. The first fisherman jumped in, rescued the child and handed him up to safety in the second fisherman’s arms. No sooner had they settled the child down on the grass, when a second infant floated along. Again, the fisherman jumped in and rescued the baby. A third baby floated along, a fourth, and so on. The fisherman saved each in turn. Finally a whole group of babies came floating downstream. The first fisherman grabbed as many as he could and looked up to see his friend walking away. ‘Hey’, he shouted, ‘what’s wrong with you? Aren’t you going to help me save these babies?’ To which the second fisherman replied, ‘You save these babies, I’m going upstream to see who’s throwing all those babies into the river!’ Our courts have the power to step into the shoes of the parent and make orders in the best interests of the child where a parental choice may result in harm to a child, NOT however, as Madame Justice McLachlin of the Supreme Court of Canada, writing for the majority in the case of Winnipeg Child and Family Services and D.F.G., stated in reasons released October 31, 1997 where the child is not yet born. There is a direct connection between social justice and criminal justice. Making streets safer has as much to do with literacy as it does with law, with the strength of families as with the length of sentences, and with early intervention as with mandatory supervision. Crime prevention means recognising connections between the crime rate and the unemployment rate, between how a child behaves at school and whether that kid has had a hot meal that day. Changes to our public schools shouldn’t be driven my myths or, for that matter, by attempts at fiscal restraint masquerading as educational reform. Improvements should be based on