ALBERTA
Protestors look to ditch the UCP k-6 draft curriculum

About 70 people gathered outside the Grande Prairie city hall last weekend, joining a province-wide protest asking the province to eliminate the K-6 draft curriculum.

Protests also took place last Saturday in other cities including Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Red Deer.

Andrea Willman organized the protest in Grande Prairie.

“It's incomprehensible to try and implement a curriculum across the province in so many places at the same time, without at least a year of working together,” said Willman, a substitute teacher for Grande Prairie Public School Division and mother of two in grades two and five.

“It's built to fail,” she said.

School divisions were given the opportunity to pilot the draft curriculum in the 2021/2022 school year. Many, including the Peace Wapiti Public School Division (PWPSD) and Grande Prairie and District Catholic School Division (GPCSD), did not.

On March 10, the province announced it would be moving forward with the K-6 draft curriculum in a scaled-back version with mathematics and English language arts and literature for K-3 and physical education and wellness for K-6 starting this fall.

Willman says that the curriculum needs to be delayed.

“What they're launching in May, we don't actually know because they've told us they haven't finalized it, which means no one's piloted the whole thing.”

PWPSD sent a letter to provincial education minister Adriana LaGrange requesting a delay of the draft.

“This isn't political; it's about doing what's best for kids,” Dana McIntosh, PWPSD chair, told Town & Country News in March.

“We do appreciate that the scope of implementation has been scaled back, but we still think that the best way to proceed would be to have a staggered approach to implementation.”

Willman says that teachers have never seen an implementation of a curriculum like this before.

“There's always been a year or two with built-in professional development and in-services,” said Willman.

“There have always been resources available for the year ahead of time, and there are no resources available now.”

“My opinion is it is a smoother transition when the curriculum implementation is staggered,” Bob Stewart, PWPSD superintendent, told the News in March.

“Staggering allows greater opportunities for collaboration, and the new curriculum is also expensive to implement due to training and acquiring these new resources.”

Dustin Archibald attended the protest and has a child going into Grade 4.

“I took a look at the draft, and I knew that it was going to be terrible for my son.”

“The whole thing needs to be redone, from the ground up, so that people can have a good education, something that we can be proud of and not something that is just on the whims of a single political party.

“Previous curriculums we're done across parties and previous curriculum were vetted by experts; this one was not.

“We want to have actual experts who know about teaching, know about education, and know about children's development, and we really want to make sure that that happens.”

Organizers collected about 61 postcards in Grande Prairie at the protest that will be sent to minister LaGrange’s office as well as approximately 2,000 more from Calgary and Edmonton, said Willman.

The postcard states: “Over 40,000 Albertans, 95 per cent of teachers, school boards, school trustees, the Deans of Education, First Nation, Metis, Inuit, francophone, LGBTQ2+, have spoken loud and clear.

“The 2021 draft curriculum is terrible and will not prepare children for the future.”

It then calls for a full moratorium of the curriculum.

Nicole Sherk, a physical education teacher who has children entering kindergarten, grade 2 and grade 4 in the upcoming year, says the curriculum is missing vital topics and perspectives.

“Sadly, this curriculum erases all the efforts made in the last years to build up phys ed as a class for everyone as a part of a comprehensive school health framework that values the whole person,” said Sherk.

“Teachers can literally not teach it; students don't want to learn it.”

She said topics like bullying, emotions, stress, anxiety, substances and cyber safety are not explored at appropriate times.

She noted that perspectives from people with disabilities, LGBTQ2+, First Nations, Metis, Inuit, and Francophones are missing.

Sherk cited that even the N.W.T. - which had used the Alberta curriculum for some 40 years – chose not to adopt this one.

Last December, the N.W.T. announced it would be using the B.C. curriculum in a phased approach over several years.

“British Columbia’s redesigned curriculum aims to personalize learning, making it more student-centered and flexible,” said R.J. Simpson, N.W.T. education minister.

He noted the B.C. curriculum’s emphasis on indigenous knowledge, and a focus on literacy and numeracy skills would benefit students.

Nicole Sparrow, LaGrange's press secretary, attributed the N.W.T. government's decision to a desire to adopt a curriculum that is ready-to-go,” according to a CBC article.

On Saturday in Grande Prairie, speeches at the protest ended with a song from the Grande Prairie chapter of the Raging Grannies.

“Don’t mess with our curriculum; that’s what we’re here to tell ya.

“It's not too late to stop; and listen to the experts,” sang the group.

Jesse Boily, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Town & Country News