In this morning's Globe, we learn of a new school with a "social justice" theme being opened in Mississauga. I have nothing against these people -- Agnes MacPhail in particular -- but doesn't this just sound a tad politically charged?:
MISSISSAUGA -- Like the sleek suburban neighbourhood that surrounds it, Stephen Lewis Secondary School is all promise and potential, and far too new to know failure or futility.If ever there was a man who could lay rightful claim to cynicism, it is Mr. Lewis, who has spent the past few years travelling the globe for the United Nations, bearing witness to the world's failure to prevent HIV-AIDS from killing millions.
And yet the 68-year-old only smiled yesterday as he sat on the edge of his chair in the school's not-quite-finished gymnasium, rubbing his hands and fidgeting every bit as much as the 400 teenage students on hand to welcome him.
"Now I feel at home," Mr. Lewis said, after doffing his suit jacket, donning a school T-shirt and taking his place behind the microphone.
As well he should have, given the bold and novel approach the Dufferin Peel District School Board -- in particular, principal Martha Wood -- has taken to the region's newest high school. The student body, which will rise to 1,500 when Grades 11 and 12 are added in subsequent years, has been divided into four "villages" named after four Canadian activists: June Callwood, David Suzuki, children's rights crusader Craig Kielburger and Agnes Macphail, the first woman elected to the House of Commons.
The idea, Ms. Wood said, is to instill a passion for social justice and humanitarianism in the students as they form a new school community.
"Bold and novel" is one way to describe it -- political indoctrination is another.
