Support Our Students Deems the UCP K-6 Draft Curriculum A Clear and Present Danger to Education in Alberta

This Draft Curriculum, if implemented, threatens the integrity and foundational principles of the education of children in Alberta. It neglects the dignity of students by prioritizing fact memorization instead of continually building on themes to develop critical thinking. It fails to recognize children as active, curious learners who deserve age-appropriate education that fosters their innate sense of wonder and explorative inclinations in a meaningful way.
The UCP approach used to to develop this Draft Curriculum is a complete departure from all past Alberta governments and has resulted in this immensely problematic document. This curriculum process and content have been politicized which SOS believes to be an overreach of office. Support Our Students AB (SOS) points to the following significant problems:

• The curriculum itself is age-inappropriate, misaligned with child development research.
• ​Colonial Eurocentric themes throughout evoke racial othering and erase Indigenous voices. This contradicts the commitment to Truth and Reconciliation.
• Overload of American history (e.g. removal of Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Grade 6) is a blatant dismissal of Canadian identity.
• ​Education professionals and experts in curriculum delivery in Alberta were not included in a fully consultative way in its development. 
• The unreasonable amount of content intentionally reduces the education profession from pedagogical experts to simple content deliverers. 
• ​The disproportionate focus on religion is inappropriate for public primary school setting.

“The politicizing of this process and thereby of children aged 5-12 years old, is completely unacceptable and is an attempt to undermine public education and to shift our Canadian values. SOS completely rejects this Draft Curriculum and the new politicized approach undertaken by the Kenney government.” Medeana Moussa, Executive Director SOS
SOS calls on the Premier and the Minister of Education to:

1. Reconvene the curriculum working groups from the previous rewrite that began under the Prentice government and to fully respect the professional expertise of these groups.
   
2. Commit to the longstanding, apolitical curriculum development process, and dissolve the appointments of advisors selected at the recommendation of UCP politicians.
   
3. Restore the curriculum development partnership with the ATA, as without the expertise and engagement of teachers, successful curriculum development and implementation is impossible.