What are the Proper Things to be taught?

I read a response to an article on Bill 44 wherein the writer said that Bill 44 was needed because the proper things were not being taught. What are the proper things? In my mind, those things are the Alberta Curriculum. That IS what is being taught. This curriculum has been developed with input from many educators, industry input, and legislators, many of whom are parents so one could that parents have had an opportunity for input. It is designed to be culturally neutral. What Bill 44 will do is hamper teachers form being humans with personal viewpoints. Sure, they should not be teaching their opinion, however, often in classes you take a position to stimulate discussion. Sometimes it is your own, sometimes not. I worked with a Social Studies teacher who only had one student guess his political affiliation correctly over the course of 20+ years of teaching. He was very good at teaching 'everything' without bias or slant. Not everyone is that good and it is an unreasonable expectation. The important is that kids are able to see that different points of view and opinions exist. Parents always cry out to teachers to involve students so that they engage in the learning. What Bill 44 will do is produce such a neutral delivery that no one will be involved. Teachers, good teachers, will quit and go elsewhere because it will be impossible to work in an environment where they are not allowed to be human.

Bill 44 - Scary Stuff...

If I think too much about Bill 44 my stomach gets upset. I taught for 14 years. The bulk of my teaching over the course of those 14 years was Science, Drama and Math. The first two subjects would know doubt have landed me in hot water if Bill 44 went through as proposed.

I faced questions about creationism routinely when teaching high school science. I believe I dealt with those questions respectfully, but also within the curriculum and within the scope of the current scientific thought. I did say that I did not believe in Creationism, however, I would also say that I believed the bible to be allegorical. That God created us with complex minds that could understand that the story of creation was interpretive and 'who knows how long a day is to God'? I trust the Scientific Method. It's primary tenet is that you question everything. That you never trust that what you have is absolute, but that you challenge your belief so that you can minimize doubt and push the development of scientific thought further. I far prefer a doctrine that has this rigorous attitude than one that prevents change in thought. Subscribing our scientific thought to a belief system that is over 2000 years old is idiotic. There, I've said it. Stupid. An education system should not be encouraging students to be stupid. It should be pushing them to question everything.

I also faced many questions about homosexuality while teaching science and drama (and occasionally in the other subjects too). I would not ignore those questions because someone in the class might have a religious belief that promoted hatred towards homosexuals. I could not do that. I couldn't pretend that it didn't exist just to make some people's parents happy. That is wrong. Those estimated 10% of my students that happen to be gay deserved to be seen and be equal.

I am extremely disturbed by this proposed legislation. I don't think it will pass and I will march in protest if it looks anywhere close to passing. What disturbs me is that our 'leaders' brought this forward. My stomach is upset. What kind of hateful morons do we have in charge? Because you have to be either hateful or stupid to believe that Bill 44 has any legitimacy in our society.