Should the illiterate be promoted in school?
By Dahn Batchelor

A group of parents in Ontario have voiced their concerns that the Ontario government is demanding that their children, some of who are mentally handicapped, should be permitted to be given a high school diploma even though they are unable to pass a literacy test. They state that they don’t want their children ending up serving burgers for the rest of their lives.

Do these parents have any idea of what they are asking the citizens of Canada to accept? They want our schools to graduate their unfortunate offspring who can’t even read properly, to enter the work force with a high school diploma.

Will that diploma get them into university or even college? Not likely. Will it get them a job as a bookkeeper? No, it won’t. Will it get them a job as a transport driver? Hardly. How about a job as a cab driver. Forget it. Perhaps a job as a teller in a bank. Now that is a great leap into faith.

If they get a job serving hamburgers or are given work as common labourers, then they are indeed fortunate. Many handicapped people do excellent work in these kinds of occupations and it is because employers recognize their abilities to do certain jobs that don’t require a high school education. We see them all the time and we should see more of them doing this kind of work because they are entitled to earn a living so that they can be self-supporting.

But to give them a high school diploma when they can’t read properly or do basic math, is an insult to all the students who fortunately have all of their mental faculties intact and study hard to pass their exams. It will make a mockery of our school systems, which boasts that it is one of the best in the world.

Imagine if you will what would happen if your child is retarded and he applies for a job in another country and in his application he states that he graduated with a high school diploma and his or her potential employer asks if it is true that Canadian high schools graduate mentally retarded children whose reading skills don’t even surpass those of students in grade three. How embarrassing that will be to your child who wants them to think that he was smart enough to graduate from high school. Will he truly understand what was written in the letter or will his potential employer have to explain it to him?

The parents of the mentally handicapped children asked to have the matter taken to court. Should a court be ruling on matters in which the applicants are asking that a special exception be made for their mentally deficient children?

A similar dilemma happened in Florida where the court and the Florida legislature were fighting over who had the final say in whether or not a comatose woman should be permitted to live or be starved to death. The court said that it was their right to make the decision and the legislators said it was their right.

My personal view is that we elect who is to run our schools in our country and we should leave these issues up to them. For the court to interfere, there would have to be a terrible injustice heaped upon the children before the courts should interfere with school policy.

I think the real injustice would be to give mentally deficient children high school diplomas that would never be recognized in the business world.These children would then believe that they are being cheated out of jobs despite the fact that
they have high school diplomas.They have to realize in their own minds that in this highly competitive world, jobs are hard enough to find even for university graduates and that in the real world, they must accept the realization that they are destined to have to accept lower paying jobs that will not really lead to advancement.

Admittedly, this is unfortunate, of that there can be no doubt but alas, it’s life. To be more direct to the point, it sucks but unless by a miracle, these unfortunate kids suddenly become bright kids who qualify for high school diplomas, this is how their lives are going to be. The parents who are not mentally handicapped should have enough common sense to realize this and accept it.

If parents can’t brag that their mentally deficient children have high school diplomas, at least they can brag that their kids are working and are self-supporting and for a mentally deficient person, that in itself is quite an accomplishment that both they and their parents can be proud of.