The article also appears to support the use of a free market and competitive capitalism which are both elements of the private school system reviewed. Both of these elements are important to all-girl schools, as they are run as businesses and must attract ample numbers of students to remain profitable. For example the article discusses the marketing techniques of the school in attracting pupils, who may be considered as clients. The paradigm is considered to be the neo-capitalist approach as opposed to the liberalism paradigm, as the nature of schools means that there is some governmental control exerted over the business to ensure it meets legislation and standards.
Critical Analysis
The article is well written overall, for instance the structure is laid out to describe a personal story, but with external examples used to provide explanations. The provision of examples may have been improved, however. The use of one school in Toronto to provide figures illustrating the school's popularity was successful in illustrating that the one specific school had increased their intake between 1993 and the present. This popularity was then applied as a generalization to the entire all-girl schooling system in Canada. There were no overall figures presented to illustrate this conclusion however. The fact that one school had increased the...
For example it may simply be that as the school was only opened recently the size has only expanded slowly to accommodate a large number of pupils. It may be that if the school had been opened for many more years it would have already reached the current capacity at some stage in the past.
The article also surmised the reasons for which parents decide upon sending their child to an all-girls school. While the author speaks to one family, the information would have been more useful if it had come directly from families. For example the perceptions of the school as to why parents select to send their children there do not necessarily reflect the views of the parents. It would also have been interesting if information were presented about how the school chose to market itself. For example it may be that the school has selected one particular characteristic of the school to highlight in their marketing campaigns. The decision of the parents may then therefore be focused upon that one characteristic. This may help to explain the presence of an increase in popularity. The characteristics presented in the marketing campaign may reveal the characteristics with which parents are least pleased in the public school…
