Jason Kenney's 'triggered' culture reaches Alberta students - Macleans.ca

Jason Kenney’s government has made no secret of its affinity for combat, and it’s already launched offensives against a wide range of targets that includes everything from the Prime Minister of Canada to a ratings agency in New York. These skirmishes are all in the service of a broader campaign to defend the province’s oil and gas industry, and restore the jobs that have been lost in it over the last few years.

The purpose of the exercise that triggered the parent—one that’s part of a social studies curriculum developed by Ralph Klein’s government back in 2005—is to help students develop a better understanding of subjects like conservation, solar and wind power, and oil exploration and forestry. The teacher showed them two videos about the oil sands, one from Greenpeace and one from the Alberta government, and asked them to identify and understand the differences.

In November, education minister Adriana LaGrange tweeted a screenshot of a question about the oil sands from a grade-10 social studies test and suggested it betrayed a nefarious political agenda. “Alberta has a great story to tell about our responsible energy sector,” she wrote, “and educators should not be attacking it. We’ll get politics out of the classroom.

But critical thinking skills are an essential “competency” in the 21st century, and they include being able to distill and understand arguments from a variety of sources—including those Kenney may not agree with. That’s precisely what the high school test question that triggered Minister LaGrange was designed to cultivate. It asked students to understand different perspectives, not agree with them—a fundamental skill for anyone who wants to work in a knowledge economy.

We have productive critical thinkers in Canada .. Really ,, Could of fooled me ,,

We know the answer: critical thinking is not for plebes. And the plebes proved him right.

UCP wants to create mindless drones to be the labour force of their overlords.

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