This is NOT surprising when one looks at what kids are being (OR not being) taught.
The Curricula has been insipid!!! AND, Eggens K-4 Drafts (after FOUR years with 300 plus "experts" and multi millions of dollars), are equally insipid! Totally UNACCEPTABLE!
Our Alberta students' fundamental/traditional Math Skills are STILL abysmal - despite him having FOUR years to improve those skills! Nor are our students being taught to read comprehensively AND write clearly (MOST don't know how to even sign their names!). Our students aren't taught to write and punctuate a sentence correctly! Grade 10 students don't even know the difference between and essay and a story! (As per the entries in the Legion's Remembrance Day Contests. And, despite all the whimpering about "critical" thinking, students can' THINK (period)! Nor can they logically debate a topic! According to Bloom's Taxonomy, kids under 12 years of age, still think "concretely" and are not capable of "critical" thinking until they reach higher thinking levels in the taxonomy... Some current adults do not ever reach "critical" thinking levels. ... Certainly NOT if they haven't been given a "broad base of knowledge to build on"! We do not have to start from scratch; we can learn from the past, prior to creating something new in our futures.
Plus, all learning MUST be "results-based"... AND, those results MUST be measurable! A wise man once said, "You cannot 'manage' what you can't measure!"
Health and safety are also sadly lacking in the K-4 Wellness Draft! Matter of fact, "safety" is mentioned more often in the K-4 Science Curricula than in the Wellness Curricula Draft. And, the K-4 Science Curricula Draft is an insult to our kids' intelligence. ... I am not sure "where" in the current Curricula, our kids learn to "tell time." But, that used to happen in pre-school or Kindergarten. I have been told that now kids in elementary school spend a full MONTH on it!
Eggens continues to dither about the vulnerability of the LGBTQ+ students, their penchant for suicide, and he must protect them, and how GSA's "save lives."... However, he totally ignores the roughly 110 documented childhood fatalities on Alberta farms... For him those lives don't count! AND those deaths, in the past few years, are no longer even reported/recorded! Plus, he refuses to INCLUDE preventive farm safety programing in the elementary school Wellness Currciula, even though at least two such programs have been proven (with pre- and post-testing) to be effective! And, have been offered to the School Jurisdictions FREE of CHARGE!
Eggens ignores these deaths, and refuses to implement effective safety strategies and programing that would PREVENT further fatalities.
So whether it be Math, Science, Health, Reading OR Writing, our students are being severely short-changed, and even with all the "21st Century" rhetoric, are NOT being prepared for success in the Global market. Alberta's education NO LONGER ranks anywhere near the top internationally... And, that is the competition our kids will face in their not-too-distant futures!
Someone who spent her whole life "teaching"!
So our students pay the price! Whether it be graduating without fundamental Math skills and not being capable of doing any jobs that involve making change (pretty well all retail jobs), measure things accurately, figure out discounts, read and understand instructions, write invoices, receipts, memos, or read charts, order forms, etc. Or whether they leave school unable to read safety and/or operating instructions and follow them safely... That can be a matter of life AND death. Yet, Eggens' fixation with all things sexual (to be bluntly crude, making sure all 12-year-olds know how to put a condom on a banana, and all Grade 5-6 girls know how to groom their hair and nails in the most enticing/seductive styles) get Class instruction time. And, in our School Division, groups of 5 to 6 of Grade 3 girls get "pulled out
R. Stephenson - 6 years ago
If math skills are that poor at the grade 9 level, then the problem is well before students reach grade 9 obviously!! What was happening during the other 8 years.
This is NOT surprising when one looks at what kids are being (OR not being) taught.
The Curricula has been insipid!!! AND, Eggens K-4 Drafts (after FOUR years with 300 plus "experts" and multi millions of dollars), are equally insipid! Totally UNACCEPTABLE!
Our Alberta students' fundamental/traditional Math Skills are STILL abysmal - despite him having FOUR years to improve those skills! Nor are our students being taught to read comprehensively AND write clearly (MOST don't know how to even sign their names!). Our students aren't taught to write and punctuate a sentence correctly! Grade 10 students don't even know the difference between and essay and a story! (As per the entries in the Legion's Remembrance Day Contests. And, despite all the whimpering about "critical" thinking, students can' THINK (period)! Nor can they logically debate a topic! According to Bloom's Taxonomy, kids under 12 years of age, still think "concretely" and are not capable of "critical" thinking until they reach higher thinking levels in the taxonomy... Some current adults do not ever reach "critical" thinking levels. ... Certainly NOT if they haven't been given a "broad base of knowledge to build on"! We do not have to start from scratch; we can learn from the past, prior to creating something new in our futures.
Plus, all learning MUST be "results-based"... AND, those results MUST be measurable! A wise man once said, "You cannot 'manage' what you can't measure!"
Health and safety are also sadly lacking in the K-4 Wellness Draft! Matter of fact, "safety" is mentioned more often in the K-4 Science Curricula than in the Wellness Curricula Draft. And, the K-4 Science Curricula Draft is an insult to our kids' intelligence. ... I am not sure "where" in the current Curricula, our kids learn to "tell time." But, that used to happen in pre-school or Kindergarten. I have been told that now kids in elementary school spend a full MONTH on it!
Eggens continues to dither about the vulnerability of the LGBTQ+ students, their penchant for suicide, and he must protect them, and how GSA's "save lives."... However, he totally ignores the roughly 110 documented childhood fatalities on Alberta farms... For him those lives don't count! AND those deaths, in the past few years, are no longer even reported/recorded! Plus, he refuses to INCLUDE preventive farm safety programing in the elementary school Wellness Currciula, even though at least two such programs have been proven (with pre- and post-testing) to be effective! And, have been offered to the School Jurisdictions FREE of CHARGE!
Eggens ignores these deaths, and refuses to implement effective safety strategies and programing that would PREVENT further fatalities.
So whether it be Math, Science, Health, Reading OR Writing, our students are being severely short-changed, and even with all the "21st Century" rhetoric, are NOT being prepared for success in the Global market. Alberta's education NO LONGER ranks anywhere near the top internationally... And, that is the competition our kids will face in their not-too-distant futures!
Someone who spent her whole life "teaching"!
So our students pay the price! Whether it be graduating without fundamental Math skills and not being capable of doing any jobs that involve making change (pretty well all retail jobs), measure things accurately, figure out discounts, read and understand instructions, write invoices, receipts, memos, or read charts, order forms, etc. Or whether they leave school unable to read safety and/or operating instructions and follow them safely... That can be a matter of life AND death. Yet, Eggens' fixation with all things sexual (to be bluntly crude, making sure all 12-year-olds know how to put a condom on a banana, and all Grade 5-6 girls know how to groom their hair and nails in the most enticing/seductive styles) get Class instruction time. And, in our School Division, groups of 5 to 6 of Grade 3 girls get "pulled out
If math skills are that poor at the grade 9 level, then the problem is well before students reach grade 9 obviously!! What was happening during the other 8 years.