The former chair of the commission on residential schools says a proposal from government-appointed advisers in Alberta to shield younger children from that dark history would be a “terrible mistake” that would leave them with a distorted view of the mistreatment of Indigenous people in Canada.
An advisory panel appointed by the United Conservative Party government has presented the Education Minister with a package of recommendations, published Wednesday by the CBC, for the kindergarten-to-Grade 4 social studies curriculum. The document argues that information about residential schools should not be taught to children in Grade 3.
“For example, there could be a Grade 9 unit about benign vs. harsh schooling in the past, inclusive of all cultures not only Indigenous, but with regard to the particular problematic of residential schooling even if it applied only to a minority of Indigenous children." Education Minister Adriana LaGrange stressed the ideas in the document are merely recommendations. She said residential schools would be taught in elementary school but she declined to say at what age that would start or how that information would be presented.
Richard Feehan, the Opposition New Democrats' critic for Indigenous relations, said teaching all students about residential schools should be non-negotiable.
This is wrong! My grade 3 students have more compassion and understanding of residential schools than some adults. shameful
Learning about the past sins of progressives, really distracts from the things they are currently doing. Or is this the whole point?
Thank goodness I grew up in Ontario where nothing like this was taught. Only the good old upper and lower conflicts.
I doubt too many 'younger students' are interested in residential schools. Or in ancient Rome or many other topics that have been mooted for them in curricula. It all goes in one ear and out the other, after the test has been passed. Why waste their time?
Residential schools and what happened to the First Nations children taken from their families and forced to attend these schools is an important part of Canadian history and needs to be taught today so all students learn from it and those same mistakes are not repeated.
ableg get current. History is history. Can’t be changed. Learn not to do it again. residentialschools are part of history. It’s like saying do not teach about the holocaust, or HumanTrafficking the lesson is to learn and not have history repeat itself! SenSincmurr
If the government thought for years that it was perfectly acceptable for Indigenous children to have to experience residential schools, then I think other children can handle learning about them.
All information should be given when developmentally appropriate: when able to comprehend but also able to integrate the knowledge in a healthy and impactful way. This is the purvue of child development and education experts. Let's not politicize this.
Racism was invented by WASP using public assimilate immigrants into the white race UkrainiansEastern Europeans think they’re white cowboys on the range The Curriculum did nothing They never educated them they indoctrinated assimilated them 😉
I am mortified by the output from this Alberta committee. Regardless of whether their recommendations make it to curriculum, their views are racist, ideological and abhorrent. Alberta kids deserve so much more. NotMyAlberta
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