In an email to constituents Aug. 6, Airdrie-East MLA Angela Pitt wrote that the United Conservative Party government had kept a promise by stopping the “ideological and secretive NDP curriculum review.”
The email came the same day Education Minister Adriana LaGrange announced a new Ministerial Order on Student Learning, which will “review the standard that sets the vision, values, learning foundations and outcomes” for student learning in Alberta. According to LaGrange, the curriculum review will focus education on “the basics,” including foundational competencies in mathematics, financial literacy and numeracy.
“We’re focusing on the knowledge and skills our kids actually need, not turning them into the ‘effective agents of change’ like former NDP Education Minister David Eggen wanted,” Pitt wrote.
In her email, Pitt accused the NDP of inserting political bias and socialist ideology into their social studies curriculum when the party was in power.
“Our kids need to learn the basics, like math, reading, writing and history, not lessons on how to protest from ideological activists parading as teachers,” she wrote.
We are curious why Pitt considers teaching students to become "agents of change" is a negative thing. Her email suggests it is not a school’s responsibility to encourage students to think critically. We disagree. Should teachers stifle the efforts of people who speak out against the social status quo, or who want to make the world a better place?
Secondly, we are disappointed to see a local politician stoop to the tired political tactic of criticizing an opponent’s education curriculum as an attempt to brainwash youth.
Pitt’s email touches on the debate over the role Alberta’s education system should play in our society. Are schools meant as places of learning, where students are encouraged to think critically? Or are they incubators for churning out future worker bees?
Pitt’s email – and statements by Angus McBeath, the chair of the government’s curriculum advisory panel who said youth don't have a high work ethic when they first enter the workplace – suggest the UCP prefers the latter.
