Letter: ATA took the right stand
By Letter to the Editor on April 23, 2021.
Dear editor, The Alberta Teachers’ Association is to be commended for its strong opposition to the ill-conceived K-6 curriculum recently brought forward by the UCP government. The main point of the ATA’s argument is the lack of sufficient consultation on the content. I agree. The government would have us believe that an “expert panel” of 12 and a “teacher panel” of 100 is a sufficient number of people to review a document covering seven grade levels and several subject areas. Several of the “expert panel” were not from the field of education. So, fewer than 12 experts in education reviewed the draft curriculum. Of the 100 teachers who reviewed the draft, looking at social studies alone, there were only a dozen teachers who reviewed that subject area. If those 12 or so teachers each focused on one of the seven grade levels of social studies, there could have been only a couple of the teachers who looked at the Grade 2 level social studies curriculum, for instance. We have been misled by the UCP government with respect to the amount of oversight given to the draft curriculum. The ATA has taken the right stand on behalf of all Albertans, and particularly for our children, to oppose implementation of this new curriculum. Michael Seitz Medicine Hat 10-9
Those of us who consider ourselves to be true conservatives learned from watching the Klein government that Expert Panels are nothing more than an excuse for these Reformers to put taxpayer’s money into the pockets of their Reform Party friends. Even when some were defeated in elections they still got to fill their pockets using these panels as an excuse..
Kenney has been no different, hiring defeated Preston Manning and Stephen Harper to fill their pockets.