The lifelong value of a good education

You’ll never really understand the value of a good education until you go back to where it all began.

I’m not suggesting that you rush right out and get plane tickets to your hometown so you can relive the halcyon days of your youth. As much as we’d like, you can never recapture them.

However, with a good memory and plenty of imagination, it’s possible to turn back the hands of time. You can be in one place and relive the sense of another, and that’s exactly what happened last week.

New Minas Elementary School hosted an Open House to mark the completion of its new gymnasium so we bundled up the troops and took advantage of the opportunity.

Our daughter will officially be in ‘big school’ in September and she was excited about an ‘inside’ look. Our young man, who shares her enthusiasm, would’ve been very disappointed if he hadn’t been part of this excursion. He wants to go there, too (although he’s a couple of years away from that adventure).

Suffice to say, they had a ball. Literally. The gym’s storeroom was open and each of them – like myriad other kids on hand – latched onto basketballs in short order.

Our little man was content just to sit on his and watch other children rip and tear. Our girl would roll her ball and then chase it, hair flying wildly behind her, a smile plastered on her face.

School principal Eric Trahan outlined the various components of the gymnasium and if this doesn’t become a community focal point in the near future, I don’t what else would qualify. There are six basketball hoops, four badminton courts, a rubberized floor, a stage with sound system and peek-a-boo movie screen, complete Internet and electronic capability in virtually every corner of the room, new change rooms, great equipment. You get the idea. It’s happenin’.

As I watched our kids and those big and small thrill to the room, I thought to myself, ‘This is where it all begins.’ Elementary school - and those dedicated men and women who teach at that level - provides the educational building blocks for the rest of our lives.

When did we learn to read and write? In grade school. Where did we forge those first beyond home relationships: friendship, crush, romance? You guessed it.

What’s troubling here in Nova Scotia, though, is a potential funding crunch, perhaps as immediate as the next provincial budget. Funding for schools in Nova Scotia is the lowest of all provinces per pupil in Canada and the Annapolis Valley Regional School Board has the lowest provincially. You don’t need a math degree to figure out where that leaves us.

How can schools and teachers build a solid foundation when we can’t even afford the mortar? What’s needed is a solid push from local MLAs before the budget’s rendered to make decision-makers aware of the situation and to encourage Cabinet members to do the right thing.

When I see how excited my daughter gets when big school comes up and how tickled she is to be headed in that direction, I have no choice as a parent. If additional funding and resources are required, get them.

Elementary and secondary school education is crucial and I never felt that I lacked for anything. It’d be a shame for any student to feel otherwise and it’s incumbent on all of us, through our elected representatives, to ensure that our children have the necessary resources to succeed, academically and in life.