Protesters gathered outside MLA Michaela Frey's office at noon to protest Alberta's draft K-6 Curriculum (Tiffany Goodwein/CHATNewsToday)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Educators call on province to ‘Ditch the Draft’

Apr 2, 2022 | 4:14 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB– Protesters stood outside MLA Michaela Frey’s office Saturday afternoon to voice their concerns about Alberta’s draft curriculum.

Back in March, the province announced the Alberta draft curriculum will be implemented for K-3 Mathematics, English Language Arts and Literature and K-6 Physical Education starting in September 2022. For students in grades 4-6, the math and english curriculum will be implemented the following year, the province said.

Alberta’s draft curriculum has been the subject of mounting opposition with critics arguing the curriculum is eurocentric, limiting in its views, and not age appropriate. Back in December, the Northwest Territories announced that after more than 40 years they would not be using Alberta’s draft curriculum and they would be opting for B.C’s curriculum instead. The curriculum has also sparked dissatisfaction amongst teachers. A preliminary survey of more than 6000 educators by the Alberta Teachers Association found that 91 per cent of teachers and administrators are unhappy with the curriculum. Another 90 per cent of Elementary teachers, reported feeling ‘uncomfortable’ teaching the curriculum to students.

Jen Karpiuk has been a teacher for 12 years, and is currently a graduate student studying curriculum.

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” When we think about what a decent curriculum looks like it should be internally consistent, built on a framework and that follows sequencing that is age-appropriate, but also inclusive as we move forward, ” she said, noting the draft curriculum ignores all of that.

Jason Thompson has been teaching for 14 years, with 10 of those years in Medicine Hat. He said he would like to see the province put the brakes on the curriculum.

” A curriculum is something we should be proud of, that helps us want to be better, that helps us prepare our kids better for the future, and it just seems like the government doesn’t want to listen and they want to push this through, even though there have been districts and schools across the province saying , it’s not ready, it needs some more time,” he said.

Peter Mueller has been a retired teacher since 2004, and he called the draft curriculum a pure disaster.

” This is a hodge-podge of badly connected information. Disconnected in the minds of the writers and the students, and the teachers, it is going nowhere. It is so much lower than the existing curriculum which they have shredded, with the millions of dollars that went into it. That was a 30 year project and they simply dumped on it, and got rid of it because Jason Kenney is very much against public anything, and this is public education,” Mueller said.

Mueller said one of his biggest concerns as an educator is that the curriculum relies on memorization and doesn’t foster critical and active thinking, which are skills he argues that are essential for students as they grow into adults in a democratic society.

” You want people who are engaged. Not just told what to do,” he said.

Ditch the Draft was a province-wide protest with events happening in Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, and Red Deer.