Are Toronto Schools Privileged

[BULLRYDER]

Tonight I had a conversation with one of my friends about swimming pools in elementary and high schools. He grew up in northern Ontario and said that their schools didn't have swimming facilities.
This was a shock to me because most of the schools that I attended had swim teams and many schools held swim meets.

Is this true?

 

[OddSox]

I dunno about northern Ontario, but when I went to school there were no swimming pools and no air conditioning either - anywhere. It wasn't that long ago - the 70s. Swim meets sure - but they were held at the regular public pools, and not on school time.

That being said, swimming pools are probably a good thing for students health these days. The air conditioning, not so much.

 

[Viggo Rasmussen]

I went to school just a bit north of Toronto, we had no swimming pool or team. The football curriculum was dismantled because of costs for equipment, rugby was brought in to replace it and that was done by students. The teachers didn't have time or abilities for this.
There wasn't a school hockey team, the town had their own leagues.

 

[sleazure]

I'm from eastern Ontario. No school swimming there, either. Safe, though. Not much violence.

 

[Never Compromised]

No school swimming pool in the entire town I grew up in. I only remember going to the YMCA as part of a school swim function only twice from K to 13. Local swim team was community based, not school based. No air conditioning either. Nor any soda machines, only drinking fountains.

 

[oldjones]

Why would this be a shock? It was only a coupla governments ago that school taxes were pooled and redistributed province-wide, so everyone would get a share of fatcat TO. Up until then rich cities like TO got rich facilities, poor ones got … .

Same thing today. Although taxes are pooled the 'all government is bad, all taxes should be cut' philosophy means existing school pools are being closed, not new ones being opened. And the parents who could afford higher taxes are buying extras for little Tiffany's school with bake sales and such so none of their money's available to put a pool in a poor neighbourhood where it would really make a difference.

Now if we could just get taxpayers to want as much for kids as for their damn cars …

 

[blackrock13]

You're trying to make a connection that isn't there. It's not an indication of privilege. It's an indication of numbers or just focus. I've lived in large and small cities in Ontario Quebec and Alberta and the facilities were more a function of numbers, not location. The best example was a rural regional school with about <2000 student from all over the area, 2 to 3 times the size of any other school inn the ares.. It had a pool, a curling rink, and the closest thing to a sports stadium I've seen in Canada at a high school. They were a pain to compete against has they were a perennial powerhouse in any major team sport in the province. The sports keep the student at the school and out of the bars. Something else kept them occupied on Friday nights, a school dance. When was the last time you heard of a school dance on a Friday night.

 

[oldjones]

My brother and I went to two different Ottawa high schools with well over a thousand students each. No pools. It's not just numbers but taxes, which is why that regional school bussed in kids from miles around, because the pooled taxes could buy more stuff at bulk rates than singly.

But if you're not willing to pay the taxes in the first place—which is the conservative cant of today—then you close pools. Like we're doing here in TO.