Protesters call for Alberta government to scrap K-6 draft curriculum

Dozens of educators, parents and children gathered at the Alberta Legislature Saturday to protest the implementation of the new elementary school curriculum, part of which is slated to be taught to students this fall.

"Ditch the Draft Curriculum" protests took place in Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer and in the Vermillion-Lloydminster-Wainwright area. Attendees rallied against the new kindergarten to Grade 6 curriculum, which has been under fire for months.

"Enough is enough. This curriculum is not worthy of our students," said Carla Peck, a professor of social studies education at the University of Alberta, who helped organize the protest at the Legislature.

"The quality is not good enough; it's going to set Alberta education — and the students who receive that education — back 50 years or more."

The provincial government started reviewing the K-6 curriculum in 2019, then began drafting a new one in the summer of 2020. The drafted curriculum was open to the public to review and provide feedback until February.

Many have critiqued the process as well as the curriculum's content — particularly the social studies portion, which educators, parents and Indigenous leaders and elders called racist, Eurocentric, age-inappropriate and misinformed.

The provincial government has since rewrote the social studies draft curriculum.

In January, the province formed an advisory group — consisting of 17 bureaucrats, superintendents, school trustees and educators — to figure out how best to implement the new curriculum in the fall.

The protesters out Saturday hope their pleas will make the Alberta government reconsider moving ahead with the process and, ultimately, draw up a different curriculum for students, Peck said.

"This curriculum is ultimately about the future of our province, the future that our students will have and grow into," she said, noting that curricula can be around for 20 years or more.

"It really matters — the quality of curriculum that we're putting into schools —  and we've got to get it right."

Peck also wants teachers to have more say in the drafting process, she said.

Heather Taschuk, a teacher and parent to a Grade 3 student, attended the legislative grounds Saturday. She held a pink sign that suggests the draft curriculum forces students to memorize what they're taught, instead of giving them room to explore for themselves.

After pushing through the past two years, many teachers see continuing with the draft curriculum as a breaking point, she said.