Studying a fishing community in Nova Scotia, Corbett discovered, “Many informants viewed formally educated people as lacking life skills.”708 They viewed school as “a pale shadow of life, an unreal place where one was infantilized and where ‘nothing really happened.’”709 Ultimately, Corbett observed: Rural schooling sought to do the “missionary” work of cultural elevation in a “backward space.” Yet dropout rates remained high, resistance was common, and people remained committed to staying where they were and to gaining practical knowledge about places at hand rather than theoretical knowledge
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