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Blue, White and Green
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Phillip Hong June 18, 2010 |
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They were selling Florida condominiums near Highway 50 (the border with Peel
Region), and South Korea had just won a World Cup football/soccer match in South
Africa, but those are clearly not the reasons why I was awake and on public
transit on a Saturday morning.
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I count myself lucky as a bred Bramptonian because it's a city with a big heart -
combining multiculturalism with a small town charm - but being away from it for
years while living in York Region had added downright curiosity as to what the
central part of Peel has become.
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As a child, my entire life was based on a neighbourhood that would have been
Mississauga without boundary changes, and a little school that was built to
create the finest minds. It's also not a surprise to me that my elementary
school also holds Peel Region's oldest Spring Fair, an event that not only
provides fun for the kiddies, but raises some much needed money.
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I look back to my younger years and it looks like it was a distant fantasy;
a timid, shy child that just wanted to be accepted into society turned
bookworm, who needed English as a Second Language in what is now the Custodian's
Room. Recently, Parkway Public School managed to build a new extension, which
means children now have change rooms. But like most schools in Peel, they've
had to make do with a tight wallet.
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"We still have all the old stuff," a teacher who taught me as a student sixteen
years ago said tongue-in-cheek, although I'm still not sure whether it was a
budgetary cry for help or a simple way to keep the old piano for generations to
come.
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Choir practice, the small but resourceful library, the dedicated teachers, the
decades-old school song that is still sung today - these were just a few of my
happiest memories.
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Which made my education in York Region look like some sort of medical treatment.
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You see, York Region students get more funding per student per year than their
peers in Peel, at least according to the latter board. In fact, a recent statement
indicates that Peel would be "sufficiently funded" if it was 1996!
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I feel like I have cheated on all my former classmates who stayed in Brampton
ten years ago, because the minute I entered the school system in York, I was
given more in funding. What is the difference between a pupil in Peel, Peterborough
or Petawawa?
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I grew up in the best place you could learn - teachers that care, and who are
passionate enough to stay - combined with a school spirit that brings old souls
like me to revisit time and time again, years after we left or graduated.
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This proves one thing: No matter how underfunded Parkway is, its people are
what makes it special to me, and you can't buy that.
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Phillip Hong, a resident within suburban Toronto, is a constant tourist. Check
out the interesting experiences of his journeys on The Travelling
Briefcase.
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