Alberta's Draft K-6 Curriculum gets an "F" from Airdrie parents and teachers

Alberta's Draft K-6 curriculum is meant to focus on literacy, numeracy, citizenship, and practical skills. But since the curriculum was announced, parents and teachers alike think it is far from making the grade.

 

 

Discover Airdrie spoke to several parents and teachers about the curriculum. Here's what they had to say on the key issues.

 

Jackie Astrom, an Airdrie pre-school teacher and mother of two shared her thoughts, saying that the social studies curriculum, in particular, worries her.

 

"It leans very heavily toward ancient societies, ancient religions, and history," she said. "Seven-year-olds in grade two, can't really grasp that. You even have concepts in kindergarten, where they have to memorize their birthday and memorize famous people that have the same birthday as them."

 

Part of the kindergarten social studies curriculum states that the organizing idea behind what children will learn is civics, "Canada’s constitutional monarchy, democracy, rule of law, and citizenship are understood through knowledge of the origins and development of various contrasting political traditions and ideas."

 

The grade two social studies curriculum has several guiding questions that are meant to be answered over the course of learning, one of which is, "What did ancient and medieval civilizations contribute to today’s world that has enduring value?"

 

The learning outcomes for students in grade 2, among other things will be to learn about Ancient Greece, Pax Romana, learning about the origins of Rome (Remus and Romulus), as well as exploring the world's three monotheistic.

  

Kira Anderson, another mother, and resident of Airdrie who is a teacher in Calgary has similar misgivings.

 

"I already have seen students struggling with this [current] curriculum in grades seven and eight," she said. "So they're not ready necessarily ready in grades K to six, to be handling these concepts. All we're doing is setting up bigger challenges for students, specifically students with learning disabilities."

 

Anderson said that there is a huge void between what children are learning now and what they may be learning soon, especially when she thinks of what her son is learning in grade one currently.

 

"It's a huge jump from them [children] learning about themselves and understanding Airdrie and how they fit in belong in that to now bigger pictures, bigger concepts."

 

For children in grade one, part of the new social studies curriculum states that students will be learning about, "First Nations and Inuit migration patterns, stories, and ideas as they existed on traditional territories before the arrival of people from Europe and other parts of the world."

 

Amanda Bankebabone, a mother of four who taught special education and is now a substitute teacher is particularly worried about the grade six social studies curriculum.

 

In grade six, students will learn about, "The Ku Klux Klan and why it appealed to Americans and Canadians who felt distracted by social changes and the advances of groups they believed were inferior." 

 

Students will also explore the, "'One Flag, One Language, One School, One Race, One Religion'” slogan that is associated with the KKK.

 

Bankebabone said that she takes issue with the fact that history like this is being taught to a group of students, sometimes upwards of 30, where different students have very different levels of understanding and background knowledge.

 

"I can have that conversation one on one with my son, but in a classroom of 30, with varying different entrance points and varying different experiences, from the perspective of a teacher, it would almost be humiliating."

 

 

Kira Anderson thinks that the new curriculum doesn't focus on the application of skills.

 

"For kids that have special needs or diverse needs, they need us [teachers] to be able to make the curriculum work in a different way for them," she said. "For some kids, that might mean more memorization, and for others, it might mean more of the application part of it."

Bankebadone underlined that in order for children to be able to learn abstract concepts there needs to be a foundation.

 

"It's really important to have an awareness of where kids are developmentally and what they're capable of," she said. "This curriculum doesn't do that. It's like these are a bunch of topics that need to be covered in social studies and sciences, and we're just going to throw it in there. There's no building off of it."

 

According to a written statement by the Press Secretary for Alberta's Minister of Education, Nicole Sparrow, "The draft curriculum is just that, a draft. Alberta Education is currently in a year-long review process to strengthen to draft curriculum. We’re listening and working with parents, education partners, and Albertans to make improvements on the draft curriculum and ensure it reflects the feedback we hear and the latest evidence about what works best for children. Additionally, 380 teachers and 7,800 students from across the education system are piloting draft curriculum content and will be able to provide valuable in-classroom feedback."

 

However, according to The Alberta Teachers’ Association’s Professional Curriculum Analysis and Critique of Alberta Education’s 2021 Draft K–6 Curriculum, there are at least 14 points of contention that have been identified, some of which include:

 

1. Little relationship between the government’s own vision and guidelines for student learning and the draft curriculum.

2. Not logically sequenced and not appropriately designed for teacher use.

3. Developmentally inappropriate learning outcomes that lack high academic standards and do not adequately describe what students must know and be able to do.

 

With the municipal election fast approaching on October 18th, the parents said that this will be factoring into their vote on when selecting their RVS school board trustees.