106 .S'uu'mzs' (m I/I(’ Edge

and women, not to mention children, know very little about the co-operatives, their purpose, how they came to be, and what would have happened if they had not been founded. This is dangerous, and may undermine the co-ops in the long run. This danger is visible, for example, in the number of people who shop in Summerside, believing goods are cheaper there, and perhaps not taking into account the cost of the eighty kilometre drive both ways. Hopefully, some of the Bicentennial celebrations will raise all such people’s consciousness with regard to local history. Even if the Bicentennial does not, the co-ops themselves should do more educating than they do currently.

Next to this serious lack of knowledge, I would point to the schools’ curricula and the attitudes upon which they seem to be based. The schools’ implicit aim - and here I do not only speak of those in West Prince County or, indeed, on the Island - seems to be to homogenize the minds and feelings of both male and female students at a level of mediocrity which will ill— prepare them for independence and/or imaginative work or creativity. Furthermore, the curricula prepare youth for moving away to a city. To remain where they are and do something worthwhile there is not presented as a viable option. In this way, they endanger both community and co—operation. Each of these depend on a succession of leaders from within the community in order to survive, keep its independence and to grow. Leaders from elsewhere, who can be helpful or disastrous in their effect upon a community, would likely not be as effective as those born and brought up there.

The most tangible danger to Tignish - one that some might put higher on this list — is the possible collapse of the lobster fishery. This could certainly happen; there