Thread by @JoeMcFarland

Alrighty, my friends, time for another world-famous #JoeTwitterThread. I wanna give a little more background on this #ABleg curriculum review & rewrite. Firstly, yes my wife is a teacher. I volunteered in her classroom often & have seen all of the work her kids do. #Education

Secondly, I have a son who will be entering the system in a few short years. So yeah, I have pecuniary interests in how this all shakes down. Thirdly, I spent a lot of time reporting on #education issues in this province as a reporter & news director. And there's a fourthly...

And that is I have been involved in #education myself. A few years ago, I approached @JoyBowenEyre to get a pilot program going, aimed at teaching kids about game-day presentation, sports & public speaking. I ended up running it for 2 years before taking a break. #ABleg

It was an eye-opening experience in building a curriculum of sorts, coming up with a marking system, etc. Furthermore, I helped build the 4th semester curriculum for the RTBN program at @sait. So yeah, I know a thing or two about #education & curricula. Am I an expert? Nah.

But you don't really need to be an expert to read the recommendations that were leaked earlier this week to know that something is horribly awry. For those who missed that @CBCCalgary story, here it is. #ABleg cbc.ca/news/canada/ed…

Now let me be clear about something here: I am actually all for a curriculum review & rewriting pieces on an ongoing basis. It's baffling that some pieces haven't been updated since my time in school (pre-2000). That shouldn't happen. We can & should do better. #ABleg

What I don't understand is why this government is seemingly wanting to blow the whole thing up. #Alberta kids are some of the highest achievers in the world. That is fact. Feel free to fine-tune & adjust, but why fix what isn't broken? #ABleg

This province spent millions upon millions of dollars between the old PC & NDP governments doing all that. This government is now throwing it all away to get recommendations like the ones outlined in the story? How is that being fiscally prudent? #ABleg

And then we get into the actual content. I didn't realize that there's a desire in #Alberta to take us back a few decades. Not only in the things that are being taught, but in the way they are being taught. The writer claims he isn't pro-memorization, then goes onto recommend...

...a bunch of memorization-based things should be the basis for these young kids. Their minds are very absorbent, he claims. He isn't wrong, but I would argue only in certain subject matter. Elementary kids are still grasping simple things like addition up to 100 in math. #ABleg

Yet we are expecting them to memorize important dates in Canadian history, Bible passages & more. On that Bible note: I will legit lose my mind if anyone so much as sneezes at the idea of bringing religion into public schools. There are separate schools for that. #ABleg

Elementary school is about putting in the building blocks for higher learning. You start small & work your way up. When it comes to social studies, elementary should focus on community. What makes up a community? How do you build it up? All that kind of thing. #ABleg

That sets the wheels in motion for later learning when they get to dive into history but also current events. That community building block allows them to understand where we were & where we are going. If they don't have that basis, they will fail later on. How do I know? #ABleg

Let's talk about math. If you don't have a grasp on the building blocks, you will struggle, as this government likes to point to when it talks about grade 9 math. Here's a fun fact: some kids in grade 3 still struggle with counting to 10. That can be attributed to a few things.

One is the child may simply not be math smart. Their brains just aren't wired that way. Two is they may not get any help at home. Their parents are more worried about the kid making the hockey team (I've seen it). Three is kids don't fail in school. So they are pushed through.

Now, we can debate the merits of passing & failing kids another time. But the bottom line here is that while their peers are keeping up with the subject matter year after year, those kids are falling further & further behind. "Well put them in a special class" some will say.

Well, that doesn't happen nowadays. It's called inclusive education. So you have these classes with a wide variety of learning capabilities. You have 25-30 kids in a classroom with everything from high learners to those with development challenges. All with one teacher. #ABleg

Another thing I want to say with these recommendations is that they seemingly go off a belief that kids will learn the early essentials at home. While it might happen for some, the vast majority likely won't. And now you want the parents to know & help with this stuff too? #ABleg

There is so much more we could go into here & so many complexities. Yet, somehow we are now dividing this debate into "basics vs. social justice", which is so blatantly dumb & simplistic, it does nothing to actually further the conversation. We need to do better for our kids.

If you made it this far in the thread, I really appreciate you & your belief that what I say when it comes to #education in #Alberta is important. I'll continue to advocate for a strong public system & strong curriculum. And that means a few more rants before too long. #StayTuned