Yes, I think I will just keep the general comments from being too specific here, Mr. Chairman. The Minister has not answered my question, but I will get back to
it when we get into the details. One of the things that, with regard to the objectives of the school, is in regard to the community-based leadership projects in all official languages, is the aboriginal language literacy program.
All of that is really part of the departmental overview. One of the concerns I have, all Members have, is we have more student failures than, perhaps, there are successes. I think that some of the Members indicated that, in five years, some students in certain regions have not graduated. I think they have been quite disturbed by the trends in their constituencies, Mr. Chairman.
One of the things that I wanted to mention is that we seem to respond to educational issues by having parent participation, and try to resolve it through, maybe the local education authorities, or committees, or boards. But, one of the responsibilities, I believe, of the communities and I have expressed that time and time again, is that the culture, the language, the music, the stories of aboriginal people, should be the responsibility of the aboriginal people themselves in the communities. Not the schools.
I truly believe in that. Once we concentrate more on the basic curricula, the math, the science, the social studies, the spelling, the main subjects, I believe there is going to be an improvement. But also one of the difficulties, I find, is that students going to school right now go to the same building day in and day out, year in and year out, and so, they are in the same environment to study what is called aboriginal culture and those sort of programs, and also what is required to advance according to the non-native people. But if that student was to have the requirements to complete grade 12 and these subjects and we leave the responsibility of cultural aboriginal language programs etc., to the community, I believe it will also give the students an opportunity to get out of that educational institution and go to another type of environment to study their own languages.
As far as I am concerned, when I go into a school, whether I am an M.L.A. or not, it is still a white institution, and I feel like a second class citizen in that institution and I am sure that a lot of students feel that way too. On Friday, I listened to a program regarding disciplining students. There were comments on what is happening with the students and why we are having so many problems. I have been listening to the commentaries on it too, from principals who are basically white with white, middle class views, thinking that they have the answers to the disciplining of aboriginal people.
I say that there is not a disciplinary problem. There is a lot of cultural difference. The cultural difference is what the discipline is all about, because if you do not meet the white, middle class standards then you need to be disciplined into those areas. Before the coming of the Europeans, the aboriginal people were nomadic people, they moved with the animals, they moved for other things. They were more adapted to their surroundings, we adapt to the surroundings. I think that has been the difficulty for aboriginal people.
Time does not control you, but if you are in school that is what you live by, time, efficiency, and expectations. Not a clock, when the bell rings, that is time for you to get in so everything is sort of done time wise.
I do not see any disciplinary problems, Mr. Chairman, I think that the more that a non-native person knows about a native person, and vice versa, perhaps we might be able to have a smoother operation of a school. That is not the situation at this point in time. We do not have any aboriginal curriculums, very little of it, if any, we do not have any aboriginal history, it is all European history.
If European history is something that wants to be taught in the schools, so be it. I think that you should allow the aboriginal people to also teach their own child, in the classroom environment, their history. I think that we have a lot to contribute.