LBPSB teachers approve of contentious history program
Teachers at the Lester B. Pearson School Board give a thumbs up to the contentious Grade 9 and 10 history program and a thumbs down to the planned incorporation of a financial-literacy course into the Grade 11 Contemporary World curriculum.
Last month the English Montreal School Board called for the Education Ministry to correct omissions in the Grade 9-10 history course. Council members said the contribution of First Nations, anglophone and allophone communities to Quebec’s history was not represented in the material and that 68 per cent of the board’s history teachers agreed the course was deficient.
The EMSB councillors called for other school boards to join in the push for change.
“We were surprised about the high percentage of (EMSB) teachers who were unhappy with the course,” LBPSB chair Suanne Stein Day said. “We have consulted with our history teachers and there are no complaints.”
In fact, the majority of LBPSB history teachers have yet to see the new Grade 10 history course.
The Grade 9 history course was introduced as a pilot project at one school in LBPSB territory in the 2015-2016 academic year.
Teachers at large participating in the pilot project voiced concern that there were omissions to be addressed, so Education Minister Sébastien Proulx extended the pilot project by one year. This year, the Grade 9 pilot history course is being taught at all the LBPSB schools. The history course is divided into two distinct historical periods and taught chronologically.
Grade 9 students learn about the history of Quebec up to 1840.
Grade 10 students study post1840 history.
The Grade 10 history course is still in the initial pilot stage which means it is being taught at only one school in the LBPSB region.
LBPSB director of educational and information services Tom Rhymes described it as a ‘closed pilot,’ which means the rest of the schools have not yet seen the Grade 10 course content.
He said the board is expecting to receive a prototype of the coursecontent guide within weeks.
“What the (LBPSB) teachers like about the two-year history course is that it offers them the gift of time,” Rhymes said. “They now have 20 per cent more time to delve into the material and tackle any omissions by using all sorts of supplemental materials — videos, websites, newspaper articles. It’s a vast improvement over the old way which had teachers trying to cram 400 years of history into six months.”
LBPSB teachers may like the history course, but they are less enthusiastic when it comes to Education Minister Sébastien Proulx’s December announcement about a new financial-literacy program for Grade 11 students.
“The teachers are all for having a financial-literacy course, just not in the way it’s being (implemented),” Stein Day said. “It’s February and they still haven’t seen any of the material and or had any training. They are concerned.”
The cause for concern is not only about the timing. Teachers are worried about where the course will land. The plan is to incorporate the new material into the Contemporary World course.
Half of the time will be spent on the mandatory financial-literacy course.
The rest of the time will be spent teaching Contemporary World curriculum, with teachers given the freedom to choose and execute special projects within the contemporary-world framework.
In the Education Ministry’s December statement, Proulx said this division “offers flexibility to schools and respects their desire to have the autonomy necessary to carry out specific projects.”
Stein Day said she would have preferred the economics course be introduced earlier, perhaps in Grade 10.
She said Grade 11 students are already stressed enough about final exams and acceptance into CEGEP and to cram new material about financial responsibility into a course about the contemporary world would not leave enough time for the teachers to cover all the bases and would only result in heightening stress for both the teacher and the student.