Curriculum experts, educators, parents, and many of the current school boards have pointed out the flaws in the draft k-6 curriculum. Do you agree with calls to scrap the draft curriculum and start over to develop a curriculum that is accurate in capturing Alberta’s colonial history, diverse present, and modernized to reflect the world we live in?

October 2, 2021 locke.spencer@gmail.com

Yes, I agree with the calls to redo the curriculum. I do not support the new curriculum; it did not have nearly enough broad and public consultation to justify its adoption.

There were many problems identified by many stakeholders across a broad range of subjects. The vast majority of school divisions rejecting the opportunity to trial the new curriculum speaks volumes.

Over the last decade in Alberta, K-12 curriculum has become highly politicized. We need to get the curriculum out of the election cycle and back into the hands of stakeholders: the public, education and topical experts, parents, teachers, and school divisions. We cannot tear up our curriculum every time someone new gets in office. There are many simple elements of the past few iterations of the curriculum that should be updated that have stalled as political casualties. Changes to the curriculum need to be more informed by education experts, with an iterative and meaningful public consultation process before being run in smaller trials, finalized, and broadly adopted.