Chapter 12 - by Intikhab Amir

‘Canadian mentality’

Miss Doyle’s class does not aim at helping immigrants’ kids to learn English. It aimed at instilling Canadian mentality, politeness, mannerism, and compassionate terror as the teacher acted as a military commander to discipline a bunch of disorderly folks to indirectly attain a cohesive Canada. “We were an unruly, untidy mixed bunch of immigrants and displaced persons, legal or otherwise, and it was her duty to take out varying fears and insecurities and mold us into some ideal collective functioning together as a military unit with one purpose: to conquer the King’s English, to belong at last to a country that she envisioned including all of us.”

In her class, students are not even supposed to bring in their caps. She wants them to leave their caps in a designated area: cloakroom. Doesn’t it mean implanting Canadian way of life and mannerism by way of teaching immigrant kids King’s English. Miss Doyle looked around and nodded at one or two familiar faces. She noticed my aviator’s cap folded neatly on my lap. “Next time, Sek-Lung,” she said, “that stays in the cloakroom. ”The boys at recess called him Sekky, Miss Doyle.” A red haired girl with braces on her legs smiled at the teacher. “Thank you, Darlene,” Miss Doyle smiled back, “but you remember from last year how you should raise your hand and wait for permission before speaking out in class.”

Miss Doyle adopts more than one way to inject Canadian lifestyle into her target group. She wants the kids to accept responsibilities and perform roles for a common good. “Perhaps, Sek-Lung,” Miss Doyle said, looking directly at me, “you might like to help Darlene with the watering jug on Monday.” “Yes, Miss Doyle.” Joe Eng snickered. “--- and Joe Eng will help on Thursdays and dust the windows as well…yes, Joe?” “Yes, Miss Doyle.”

“Day after day, we absorbed her enunciated syllables, the syllables of a King and Queen. Without our fully realizing what was happening, our English vocabulary multiplied and blossomed.”

The immigrant kids learn more than merely English, Canadian manners or lifestyle at school. They accept the political perceptions, ideology and concepts prevalent in the adopted country. Canada’s enemies become their foe, and its allies are their friends.
Japan is an enemy for the second-generation immigrants because their elders think, since Japan is at war with China. Similarly, Nazis are villains, because that is what the immigrant children learn at school. “We were, of course, all “good guys” fighting dirty Nazis and Japanese. We broke into threes and fours and soared into snarling, arm-stretching, attack-and-dive flight patterns, loudly dropping brick and concrete bombs down the grassy slopes of Maclean Park.”