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The rewriting of Alberta’s Social Studies curriculum is turning into an educational travesty.

The concept of teaching history is out of style, it seems. In its place is an inappropriate over-emphasis on social change and activism.

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The new Social Studies curriculum is shaping up to fail spectacularly when it comes to providing the wide breadth of knowledge about our society, our world and our history that would give real power to students. Instead, it seeks to limit their worldview, with a narrow focus on the particular issues of the modern social justice movement.

The activist focus comes through in the Alberta Education’s new curriculum planning documents, one that lays out plans for the scope and sequence of K-12 Social Studies and another outlining the general philosophy. They are part of a new survey on the curriculum which runs until June 2.

The documents are full of vague motherhood statements, but also tip their hand. For example, we are told that Social Studies is about exploring diversity, but there’s also to be a repeated focus on First Nations, Métis, Inuit and Francophones. I should make clear that a Social Studies program that failed to look at Canada’s history of oppression of marginalized groups would also be a travesty. But when there is no sequential, systematic, thorough and ongoing study of human history as a whole, our students end up lacking the necessary knowledge to engage in sound debate and critical thinking.