The Last Stand

The Last Stand: Schools, Communities and the Future of Rural Nova Scotia is a study in publication-as-advocacy, providing both a short history of the advocacy movement in question and contributing to the movement's aims.For educational researchers, administrators, and leaders interested in policy, society, and the urban/rural divide in school systems, his work provides a detailed snapshot of a moment in time within a changing space.It holds the mark of a historian writing for the future, offering a perspective that has not been sobered by the passage of time.Inherent in that paradox is the book's strength as a tool for contemporary use and its weakness in offering a limited scope.Still, advocates for small schools and other increasingly unpopular educational models will find helpful suggestions in terms of both logic and logistics contained in Bennett's treatise.Bennett documents the controversy surrounding the closure of small rural schools as a cofounder of the Nova Scotia Small Schools Initiative.Evidently, his primary audience is Nova Scotia's electorate, and individuals participating directly in the dialogue about this particular but significant educational policy debate.As someone interested in the issues but uninvolved in the context, I read The Last Stand partially for Bennett's insights into broader questions relevant to other jurisdictions.Questions such as: How well can small schools in rural communities educate youth for the changing opportunities available to them as adults?What is the role of communities that have only marginal political and economic clout in decision-making associated with school administration?How do provincial and territorial governments engage communities respectfully in establishing and implementing operational policies and practices?What recourse do rural, small, or minority communities have when their educational values are not reflected in public institutions?And how can the call for efficiency and expediency be negotiated by advocacy organizations that wish to attach value to non-monetary aspects of schools, such as positive relationships between teachers and students?Some evidence and strategies useful to answering these questions can certainly be found in The Last Stand.At the heart of Bennett's behind-the-scenes story about grassroots mobilization to defend small schools are the twin issues of school consolidation and rural depopulation.Nova Scotia's population is divided evenly between communities designated as urban and rural.Rurality in Nova Scotia is of an extreme nature in comparison to other parts of Canada.Most towns have less than 5,000 inhabitants and are dealing with poverty, unemployment, and population decline.Declining student enrolment leads to surplus school building space, which has in turn

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