New curriculum more political than educational

By Letter to the Editor on February 25, 2019.

The Alberta Minister of Education continues to ignore the rising criticism of his new curriculum. Minister Eggen claims that 100,000 Albertans provided feedback for the writing of these documents. When was that?

Developed in secret, the public only heard of invited feedback from the minister in June of 2018; well after department minions had written the majority of the documents. And, no substantial changes occurred after that. So, where did that 100,000-person feedback come from? Ironically, 18,000 signatures on a petition decrying the appalling methodology recommended in the math curriculum were ignored. Numerous recommendations from post secondary institutions requesting a higher knowledge and skills content in math and other subjects were ignored.

The proposed social studies curriculum is simply a template for social engineering. The Edmonton Journal and other media have pointed out the lack of any substantial study related to Alberta and Canadian history in this curriculum. But it does include in-depth study of Aboriginal stories and spiritual beliefs designed to raise one-sided questions about current environmental values. As a teacher of English language arts for 23 years, I challenge the public and fellow teachers to find measurable objectives in the ‘edu-jargon’ of the English language arts curriculum.

Finally, Minister Eggan’s half truth, claiming a 30-year stagnation of current curriculum demanded this change, is also deceitful. For the past 20 years, alternative programs within the public system along with charter and private schools have tweaked curriculum with designed experimental improvements to curriculum, that have raised their student achievement results to among the highest in Alberta, indeed Canada. He has ignored them and instead seeks through decreased funding commitments to silence their input completely. So who exactly has been consulted? Selected special interest lobby groups come to mind? Finally, in the published ‘Framework for Curriculum Development’ it comes as no surprise that the curriculum vision for Alberta students does not include the characteristic “knowledgeable,” it focuses almost exclusively on ‘social relationships’ and ‘progressivist values’. The new curriculum is more political than educational and will only serve to replace student thinking and debate with indoctrinated values.

Richard Dietrich

Medicine Hat

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