Normally on weekends, I spend time away from the Legislature with Lisa and the girls, often taking part in some of the great constituency events our area is known for. But this last weekend, I put some miles on my mobile office, and took the truck up to Edmonton to take part in a “back-to-the-basics” education rally.
I think by now we all know about the petition with 13000 names that Dr. Nhung Tran-Davies authored. Her petition can be found at change.org and it calls on the government to go back to focusing on the basics in mathematics. But the problem is that the guys making the decisions are plugging their ears and ignoring the very real concerns of parents and teachers from across the province.
That was the reason that hundreds of Albertans braved the cold with their friends and families, and even brought along their little ones to take part. The good people in attendance realize that there still hasn’t been any kind of commitment from the Minister or his department to chisel the fundamentals back into Alberta curriculum. We all know that this is time-sensitive. For our kids sake we should make the necessary changes before the start of another school year.
Minister Johnson has made vague comments about “numeracy” and “literacy”, but the problem with government language is that it’s more often than not just jargon rather than clear and concrete commitments. Buzzwords aren’t going to help the declining performance scores of our kids.
So what do I want to see? Well, Alberta Education’s steering document, Inspiring Education, has a focus on what they call the “three Es”: creating engaged thinkers, ethical citizens, and entrepreneurial spirit. These are great goals, but the “three Es” seem to have barged in, and completely thrown out the “three Rs”: reading, writing, and arithmetic.
When it comes to math, we need to re institute the tried-and-true, traditional methods. Standard algorithms such as long division, vertical addition/subtraction, times tables need to be put at the forefront. Automatic recalls, memorization, and repetition should be the primary strategies for all students to master the fundamental skills. Though the petition and the back-to-basics movement have made math the centre of debate, kids need the same formats for reading, writing, and other subjects. Practice, practice, practice!
Discovery or inquiry-based learning, whatever you’d like to call it, is not what needs to be attacked in and of itself. What we’re trying to do is make sure that any kind of alternative learning or teaching method be used only after the basics are well-embedded in our kids’ minds. Teachers should be free to teach multiple strategies for those cases where traditional methods aren’t working on their own. The main dish though should always be the fundamentals. As the experts point out, kids are struggling because they are no longer required to master the fundamentals before moving to multiple strategies.
Other jurisdictions and even other provinces have gone through this same battle over curriculum. In fact Manitoba just saw the light, reversed course and returned the focus to the basics first. Like Alberta, their test scores and international and national rankings were plummeting. They did something about it because the facts don’t lie. The Alberta Government should care enough to do the same. Their educational experiment isn’t working. Parents, math experts, and many teachers know this, why doesn’t the government?
In closing, I’d like to send a shout out to all the volunteers in and around this community who do so much to make our great town even better. The town threw a volunteer appreciation breakfast to say thanks to these people last Saturday. I missed my turn with the pancake flipper as I was on the steps of the Legislature. Thank you Lisa for taking my place and filling in with Mayor Matthews. Should I be concerned that she has been asked back in my place next year?
