Coming from one of those rare spots surrounded by deep green of the rather populous southern Ontario, it's a lack of education and resources and connectivity.
Three of the schools I went to when I was young have been closed permanently and razed. There remains one because I switched high schools midway through by claiming I couldn't receive all of the courses I needed at my local school (which was true).
When I was in the second grade the school wanted to advance me by five years after comprehension testing. My parents declined because they were worried I'd become unsocialized and no other push was made. At that point the school essentially pushed me to the side and had me make up my own work to do outside of standardized testing and major projects. By high school severe apathy and boredom had set in. To get anything out of it I spent most of my time in the library or on the newly introduced internet. This is the late mid-late 90's.
Key points:
* no public transportation
* no private transportation connecting to cities
* low number of open jobs outside minimum wage for young people
* factories shuttered from the late 90s to early 2000s due to shifting tech and industry and slow adoption in this area
* low funding for schools, frequent closures
* public schools that remain tend to have lower resources rather than concentrated resources
I live in Toronto, now -- there have been times where I had to white knuckle my way through to get by here, yet. I'm working on it. That said, Canada (even my home county) is a great place to live and grow up, and its getting better.
Coming from one of those rare spots surrounded by deep green of the rather populous southern Ontario, it's a lack of education and resources and connectivity.
Three of the schools I went to when I was young have been closed permanently and razed. There remains one because I switched high schools midway through by claiming I couldn't receive all of the courses I needed at my local school (which was true).
When I was in the second grade the school wanted to advance me by five years after comprehension testing. My parents declined because they were worried I'd become unsocialized and no other push was made. At that point the school essentially pushed me to the side and had me make up my own work to do outside of standardized testing and major projects. By high school severe apathy and boredom had set in. To get anything out of it I spent most of my time in the library or on the newly introduced internet. This is the late mid-late 90's.
Key points:
* no public transportation * no private transportation connecting to cities * low number of open jobs outside minimum wage for young people * factories shuttered from the late 90s to early 2000s due to shifting tech and industry and slow adoption in this area * low funding for schools, frequent closures * public schools that remain tend to have lower resources rather than concentrated resources
I live in Toronto, now -- there have been times where I had to white knuckle my way through to get by here, yet. I'm working on it. That said, Canada (even my home county) is a great place to live and grow up, and its getting better.