CCSD chief says some parts of curriculum have merit

Despite reservations about the province's “horrific” social sciences draft curriculum for kindergarten to Grade 6, the Calgary Catholic School District's top official says other parts of the program are worth piloting.

CCSD superintendent Bryan Szumlas, who spoke with Postmedia late Friday, said the district believes teachers should be allowed to try the draft curriculum to better produce feedback for a program that will eventually be widely used.

No teachers will be required to do so, however.

“I look at this like building a house. We would like to have the best housebuilders creating the structure of the house,” Szumlas said.

“If all the educators, all the builders, were to walk away, the house that could be left behind for us to live in could be like a grass hut ... If everyone walks away from this curriculum, we'll still be living with whatever (the province) designs.”

The CCSD'S full position will be crafted in the coming days, Szumlas said, after the district returns from spring break.

Since the draft curriculum was unveiled by Education Minister Adriana Lagrange on March 29, it has been met with criticism over some of the subject matter, particularly in social studies, which will have students in Grade 2 learning about such topics as Charlemagne, while having a reduced emphasis on Canada's First Nations.

Szumlas said his district had “serious concerns” over the social studies curriculum, calling its contents “horrific” and saying he wasn't comfortable putting it in front of any children. But he said other areas of the curriculum, such as science and fine arts, have merit and could be worth testing in some classrooms.

“People are just jumping on the negative momentum of social studies and painting all the other subjects as horrific as well,” he said. “We're working with the board and working with administration to determine which areas we will be a part of.”

The Catholic board's position differs from that of the Calgary Board of Education, which joined a growing list of Alberta school divisions refusing to pilot the draft curriculum.

The choice to opt out was made by both the CBE Board of Trustees and administrators, the public board said in a statement Friday.

“While we appreciate the government's intention to redesign the curriculum for the benefit of student learning, we have concerns similar to those expressed by educators, academic staff, parents and community members,” the CBE said.

The CBE declined a request from Postmedia for an interview Friday evening.

The continued controversy follows the release of a survey late in the week showing Alberta teachers were overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the results of the curriculum review.

The poll, released Thursday by the Alberta Teachers' Association, shows 91 per cent are unhappy with the draft curriculum, while 90 per cent of teachers in elementary schools and 95 per cent of principals aren't comfortable supporting the curriculum in their schools.

“We wanted to give teachers time to review the documents and provide their feedback to us since the government failed to engage teachers in the curriculum process,” ATA president Jason Schilling said in a news release. “But the preliminary data is overwhelming: this draft curriculum is fatally flawed.”

The survey heard from more than 3,500 teachers between March 29 and April 7.

Schilling said the curriculum process was flawed because teachers weren't consulted.

“If the government is serious about producing a strong curriculum, it needs to listen to what teachers are telling them.”