In the early sixties my mother, in her last years of teaching first grade, would come home excited about her job. She pioneered an experimental program: individualized reading. Where the process had been to teach the class as a whole, always waiting for the slowest child to catch up, my mother spent five minutes with each child every few days. Conventional wisdom considered it an outrageous waste of class time. Instead she had each six-year-old reading, and many writing, before Christmas. It required more teacher preparation but that was OK with my mom, a dedicated woman who gleaned intense satisfaction seeing her children shine.

The experiment was in some ways too successful. Now-adays individualized or small group instruction is the norm in primary school not just for reading but several subjects, resulting in far more intense teacher preparation, compounded by a considerable increase in class size due to continual budget cuts.

It is the norm for governments not to act until the system is on the verge of break down. And where there are dedicated professionals, such as in the medical and education systems, the burden falls to the nurses or teachers who care too much for the well being of their clients to let the system down.

So I was pleased to see John Tory retreat from his intention to fund faith based schools. It was obvious to me where the money would have come from. Fewer students in the public system would not translate into smaller class size, rather fewer classes and less money to the schools affected.

My biggest concern, though, is a moral one. Funding catholic schools was instituted for political rather than ethical considerations. Quebec negotiated this as a concession to join confederation in 1867. But this is 2007. We are a nation where individual rights and freedoms are at the core of our societal growth.

We struggle now to create an atmosphere of acceptance and respect among diverse cultures, races, creeds. How can we justify funding faithbased schools without granting similar funding to any private school? What makes a Christian or Muslim school more worthy than a Montessori or Waldorf school?

It would not take long before the dilution of public dollars would result in a crippled public system. We would end up with one for the rich and an inferior one for the poor, similar to our fears concerning funding of private medical care.

Although a surprising number of Ontarians reacted to Tory's plan by suggesting one public funded system rather than many as the solution to the problem of divisiveness, I think the separate school board will be with us for some time. But it is a century old anachronism born of political exigencies. Funding all faith based schools is not a solution to an unfortunate situation. So thank you John Tory for backing off. My mother won't be turning over in her grave.