From Shinjuku to River John: The neoliberal juggernaut, efficiency, and small rural schools

It may seem a bit odd to begin an article that introduces a series of pieces about small rural schools in Canada, Norway and in Australia by referring to Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station; but that is how I want to begin. Shinjuku is the world’s busiest railway station, moving approximately 3.4 million people each day through its turnstiles. I was there last summer. One of the great ironies of being a scholar of rural education is that I am able to go to major urban centres to speak about my research in small rural places. Shinjuku is a fascinating place, remarkably efficient and a feat of modern engineering. I lived for a time in a small town, rural railway station with my family in southwestern Nova Scotia. My father was a railway stationmaster, and I worked my way through university laboring on track gangs in the summers. I love trains. I’m a bit of an efficiency expert because my experience working for the Canadian National Railway trained me to think in terms of safety and efficiency.