There are four school boards in Ontario that have scrapped the traditional Grade 11 English curriculum — Shakespeare and other canonical classics — in favour of teaching Indigenous authors.

Why aren’t other boards doing the same?

Last May, the Ford government backed away from making the Indigenous curriculum mandatory in high school, abandoning a key recommendation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. That curriculum — developed in consultation with elders, Indigenous teachers and residential school survivors — aimed at teaching the true history of Canada, everything from the horrors of residential schools to broken treaties and the scooping of our children by child welfare authorities.

All young people in Canada need to know this history if ongoing inequities are to be redressed and for Indigenous people to no longer be treated as wards of the Crown.

As Sen. Murray Sinclair has noted, in many ways education got us into this mess and it will be education that gets us out of it.

It is heartening, then, that some teachers are not waiting for the government’s approval to tell Indigenous stories in Ontario schools. The new English class is an important evolution. Indigenous and non-Indigenous students alike need to learn about Indigenous knowledge, how we see and traditionally take care of the land and who are the heroes and villains of our history.

I cannot tell you how many times people have told me they had “no idea” about what happened in residential schools, and their horrific legacy. I used to get angry — how could they not know? — until Sinclair pointed out that it wasn’t their fault. The truth, he said, was kept from them — they were not taught it.

Now, some teachers are finally saying enough, embodying the change the government has not yet embraced.

For Indigenous students, this is crucial. Seeing themselves reflected for the first time in the materials they are studying is bound to inspire.

For non-Indigenous students, widespread curriculum changes are just as vital. They need to learn the true history of their country if they are to understand and fulfil their civic responsibilities.

The four school boards — Kawartha Pine Ridge, Thunder Bay Catholic, Lambton-Kent and Hastings-Prince Edward — should be examples to all the others.

In Kawartha Pine Ridge, the vast majority of high school students now have a class in contemporary Indigenous voices. Its Grade 11 teachers get to choose books by an array of Indigenous writers, including Cherie Dimaline, Drew Hayden Taylor, Richard Wagamese, Katherena Vermette, David A. Robertson, Tommy Orange, Dawn Dumont, Eden Robinson and yours truly.

Kawartha superintendent Jack Nigro believes it’s time for teachers and boards to question why the same works by predominantly white male writers have been taught to students for generations.“We are beginning to ask questions about that canon and trying to find more engaging books relevant to kids,” he said. “Do you need to teach Shakespeare for all four years?”

And not only is teaching Indigenous literature the right thing to do, it even comes with a financial incentive. The total projected allocation in 2019-20 for First Nations, Métis and Inuit studies is $40.8 million. That money could go a long way in teaching Indigenous works in the classroom, buying new resources and funding more teachers — but it must be spent only on Indigenous education, not to fill other budgetary holes.

“We need to pull people away from old colonized practices,” Nigro said. “We are talking about changing the entire system. Grade 11 English is only one thing.”

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Literature courses are a good start. The study of literature, perhaps more than any other discipline, has the power to instill in young people the quality of empathy, a crucial foundation for any healthy democracy and any improved relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples.

Many boards are offering Indigenous literature to their high school students but it isn’t in every single Grade 11 classroom. It should be. We should not leave it up to the luck of the draw to determine which of our children will be taught the truth about this country. Canada’s future depends on it.