During the years I was involved with education from the middle sixties to the early nineties, I saw quite a few changes take place. The role of the school became broader and broader. The three Rs became less the emphasis, and we moved into all kinds of different kinds of social education—you name it.
I just have a personal feeling about it. I don't know if it was ever really analyzed fully, but a lot of the education that went outside the scope of the norm, which was traditionally the job of the parents or churches or other community organizations in regard to certain activities, never appeared to me to be all that successful. I was thinking of teenagers and drinking and driving, and how that didn't seem to have the impact that we would like to have seen when we brought it into the education program.
When this becomes law, there are two messages I want to see get out: the message to the would-be perpetrators that it's no longer acceptable and you'd better get it out of your mind that you're going to pursue 14- and 15-year-olds—I'm not sure how you get that message out, but it needs to be communicated loudly and clearly that this is no longer the situation in Canada—and also the education needs to get out into the minds of the 14- and 15-year-olds that this activity is no longer a choice because it's illegal. This law would make it illegal.
I'm just wondering, does anybody have any idea how this should be effectively handled by the education system? If not, maybe we'll figure it out together some day.