In his iconic essay, "All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten," Robert Fulgham wrote about all the critical lessons he learned when he was five years old: "Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody." He goes on, at the conclusion of the essay, to say, "Think of what a better world it would be if... we had a basic policy in our nations and other nations to always put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes."
Huh. Sounds like kindergarten is pretty political.
The fact of the matter is that all curriculum is inherently political. There is no escaping it, despite what a certain leader of a political party or hockey columnist would like to say. Mr. Staples would like education to be about "knowledge and search for truth" according to his tweet. The problem is that those are slippery concepts. WHOSE truth and WHICH knowledge are we going to privilege by including it in the program of studies? Mr. Staples has called for a "balanced" and "apolitical" approach. Again... not possible. Let me give you an example.
In grade 10 English, it To Kill a Mockingbird is commonly taught. In order to truly understand the text, one needs to teach the historical time period in which it is set - and also when and where it was written. It is a provocative text, one widely regarded as a classic, and it wrestles with weighty themes of racism, identity, justice, and inclusion. Simply discussing those themes in class is political. That is one of the reasons why To Kill a Mockingbird has been banned in many jurisdictions around the world. A good teacher will, of course, provide historical context. But an excellent teacher would have students looking for current examples of these themes. In class, students may read essays from McSweeny's, read poetry from Nikki Giovanni, or read excerpts from The Hate U Give. They might watch news from Charlottesville and hear President Trump's assertion that there are "fine people on both sides." In the process of this study, students will write an essay, learning important skills in diction, syntax, and structuring an argument. Perhaps they might have a debate. They will learn reading and writing skills, but also critical thinking skills as they examine their own values in light of these texts.
All of this is political. There is no question. It is also ENTIRELY supported by Alberta's current Program of Studies. Is there balance here? Nope, probably not. You know why? Because we, as a society, have deemed racist behaviour to be antithetical to our values.
This is exactly what happens in curriculum rewrite. The people writing the curriculum need to discern what will be taught, and when. Values are implicit in those decisions. This is why a whole-scale curriculum rewrite takes a long time, with much consultation with educators and the public. Curriculum modifications in Alberta began several years ago, under the Conservative government, with the Ministerial Order of 2013 focusing on competencies. In that document, educators were to focus on competencies for "engaged thinkers and ethical citizens with an entrepreneurial spirit." Right there, we have a statement completely loaded with values that the Conservative government felt were important to Albertans. Where was the uproar at that point? Why is curriculum to be "entrepreneurial" in nature? Perhaps we could interpret that as capitalist propaganda, as opposed to Mr. Kenney's assertion that the new curriculum is socialist.
But I digress. What is true is that any choice as to what should be taught, to whom, and how, is going to be political. Paulo Freire, a curriculum theorist, wrote "Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world."
Mr. Staples and Mr. Kenney would do well to remember that democracy functions best when the populace is engaged and knowledgeable. To have a younger generation indoctrinated into the "logic of the present system" means that we would continue with the sexist, racist world of the past. We would continue with an oppressive colonialist world-view.
I would suggest that Canadians want a population that enjoys the "practice of freedom." In order for that to happen, we need our young people to participate in democracy - and to understand that, by that very participation, they are agents of change. For that to happen, our schools, teachers, and curricula need to teach critical thinking, multiple perspectives, and a responsible world-view. To do otherwise is to not only minimize the import of education, but also carries significant risk - as evidenced by xenophobic, ultranationalistic policies that privilege a select few.
