Dear editor,
I write today to implore all Airdrie citizens to truly look past political associations and consider the future of our children, with regards to the implementation of the utterly flawed, developmentally inappropriate draft curriculum unveiled on March 29.
Whether you have children or not, the current generation of students will be the future of this province, and they deserve an education that is meaningful, relevant, and – most importantly – developmentally appropriate. The draft curriculum will not provide that type of education for our children.
Party representatives are doing everything they can to not acknowledge the flaws of this draft, despite the growing body of evidence showing otherwise. This evidence is not just from educators, but from concerned citizens in our province. The UCP is assuming the party's supporters will take the proposed curriculum at face value and not delve deeper, because opposition to this curriculum is from what they call “the NDP and their union activist friends” and is “ideologically motivated.”
People need to delve deeper. “A renewed focus on numeracy” sounds excellent until you realize this means drastically moving mathematics outcomes down into younger grade levels – in some cases as many as four grade levels. This means setting up an expectation that Grade 6 students have the computational proficiency, with all types of numbers (whole numbers, fractions, decimals, as well as positive and negative integers) to enter high school. This is not reasonable to expect. This sets our children up with unrealistic expectations and it sets them up to fail. Our kids will be failing before they even begin. Current educational research does not support the type of curriculum being proposed in this document.
So, Airdrie citizens, this is your call to action. The curriculum in Alberta is not about party affiliations. The curriculum is what can spark our children to find the topics that fascinate them, to be inspired by the world, to hone in on their interests and connect to the world in a way that is meaningful to them – only if given the opportunity. This draft curriculum can be so much better. Our children deserve better. I urge whoever reads this to go past the overview landing pages and read the full draft of actual specific outcomes. As you do, ask yourself: Could I have done this at this age? How is this knowledge or skill going to be meaningful and relevant to a child under 12 in today’s world?
I hope you take the time to look deeper.
Sincerely concerned for our children,
Michaela Yeats
Airdrie
