What is a Canadian Education?
"O Canada"
What is a Canadian education? "I've wondered about this question for a long time," says Valerie Pike, "and so far I have more questions than answers."
Pike brings an interesting perspective to this issue. Thoughtful, curious and intensely interested in the process of learning, she has developed an international studies program at Prince of Wales Collegiate in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The program currently has two components: an international studies course that includes a linguistic and cultural immersion component in Cuba, and a Russian studies course that includes a similar program in Russia. In her travels with her students, she has seen first-hand the difference in the education of young people in various countries.
For example, while in Cuba, the Canadian students were asked to choose a Canadian name for a park created to commemorate their visit. Her students found the task challenging. They had to search their joint knowledge of the historical and cultural signposts that define our country and make a meaningful selection. At the same time, Pike's students were struck by their Cuban friends, who seemed to have a deeper understanding and appreciation of Cuba's history and culture.
Should not one of the primary aims of our education system, Pike wonders, be to enable our young people to understand and appreciate their country and its significance in the world? An important focus of a Canadian education ought to be the development of proud and informed citizens, not solely workers, she suggests.
"Our Home and Native Land"
"At the same time, a Canadian education has to be more than just Canadian content," insists Mike Hussey, an English teacher from Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in Toronto.
Childhood in Quebec gave him an important understanding of our cultural history, he says, and a view of how different European traditions combined with Canada's geography to create a national character that is unique. The Canadian voice should be the voice of reason, Hussey declares, and the voice of the sceptic who says, "Wait a minute, that doesn't make sense."
Hussey's own voice is deep and passionate when he speaks about this issue. Teaching in a school with a culturally diverse student population, he addresses the idea of forging a truly Canadian education in his classroom every day. Hussey develops and nurtures questioning and critical, independent thought in his students through class discussions, debates and writing assignments that challenge students to express an opinion on an ethical issue while honing their structural writing skills (see Creative Arrogance in Writing).
Hussey suggests that rather than Canadian content for content's sake, a Canadian education should include elements that encourage the development of a Canadian voice and pride in a nation that allows exploration and freedom of thought. A course in ethics should be an integral part of Canadian education, too, says Hussey. "The study of ethics, logic and critical thinking idiot-proofs you against the simplistic and the trendy."
"The True North Strong and Free"
"But what about our Canadian values?" muses Matt Dawber, a music teacher at Sacred Heart Catholic High School in Stittsville, Ontario, and a member of the Tech-Connect team.
Part of our identity is a tradition of multicultural accommodation, he quietly insists. It is our promotion of tolerance and acceptance that makes us distinctive in the world, not our geography, a free press or the checks and balances of our parliamentary system. "We've always had an awareness of and support for the underdog and the disadvantaged."
A Canadian education should recognize and build on these traditions, he proposes. A Canadian education should impart a historical awareness of the broad mix of peoples who have contributed to our country and instil respect and a willingness to learn from each other. Canadians are respected and trusted around the world and our educational system should preserve and build on that reputation, he says.
This habit of accommodation is not always a good thing, counters Hussey. "When tolerance becomes permissiveness, and multiculturalism becomes stifling political correctness used to limit what a teacher can say or teach, then we're losing sight of what makes us Canadian, what makes education and what makes a Canadian education." It is more important to make sure a student can read than to monitor what they are reading, and more important to know that they can analyze and reason rather than launder what they are thinking, he says emphatically.
"Absolutely," agrees Helen Pat Hansen, a colleague of Dawber's at Sacred Heart. "When we encourage emphasis on our individual cultural backgrounds rather than on our shared Canadian background — and this applies to new Canadians, too — we lose sight of everything that Canada has to offer."
And while teaching and encouraging the values of tolerance, acceptance, honesty, integrity and fairness equip our students to be good global citizens, it does not necessarily have anything to do with developing a Canadian education, points out Jean-Daniel Roy, a Grade 5 teacher at École Sainte-Anne in Sherbrooke, Quebec. "Often the values we identify as being particularly Canadian are, in fact, things we believe should be universal human values."
And we teach them anyway, says Carl Goulding, a music teacher at Mount Pearl Intermediate School and Mount Pearl Senior High School in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador. Our educational system already teaches these so-called Canadian values by developing confidence, responsibility and a good set of employability skills in our students. "This should be the aim of any course or curriculum; it doesn't need a special focus on Canadianism," Goulding continues.
"We Stand on Guard for Thee"
Whether or not teachers agree that a curriculum designed to foster Canadian attitudes or values is necessary, there is unanimity on the need in our education system for more recognition of Canadian heritage and Canadian contributions to the world.
"Canadians have a lot to be proud of," Matt Dawber points out, listing some Canadian accomplishments: the author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a Canadian. Canadians developed insulin and the polio vaccine, and the inventor of Standard Time was a Canadian. How can we pass this pride on to our students?
"By integrating Canadian awareness into the curriculum at every opportunity," suggests Ian Naisbitt from Concord Public School in Windsor, Ontario. Naisbitt developed his Grade 5 and 6 social studies units on Native Canadians to explore not only their history but also the history of European exploration. He uses these units to reinforce the environmental awareness developed in his watershed reclamation project as well.
"It's also possible to 'spiral' lessons throughout the curriculum," says Ross Thompson, another music teacher, this time from New Minas Elementary School in New Minas, Nova Scotia. "Introduce a concept, for example the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in Grade 1 and then return to it every year, gradually expanding and developing the students' appreciation and understanding of the Charter's impact on their lives and its example for human rights around the world." Lessons such as these address a variety of approaches to a Canadian education: national pride, civic virtues and Canadian content, he points out.
"But we have to remember that there are significant regional differences in our country, too, differences that are at least as significant as those that distinguish us from other countries," argues Valerie Pike. Canada is not a homogenous country in any respect. Too much focus on national content runs the risk of impeding an appreciation of the diversity of Canada, she says.
"Develop an appreciation for our Canadian past," suggests Mike Hussey of Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute. "For a variety of reasons, students today don't have a sense of history; they don't seem to understand that it didn't all start with them. We need to show students how and more importantly, why, our laws and traditions developed."
"At the very least, there should be a map of Canada in every classroom," says Deb Robinson, principal of Guardian Angels Catholic School in Stittsville, Ontario. Such a simple detail, one that is missing from many Canadian classrooms, would contribute greatly to forming a Canadian education for our students.
Perhaps the best way to describe Canadian education as it is today is to compare it to an interconnected web of ideas and values, concludes Pike. While there is more empty space than thread or cord in a web, it is the thread that gives the web its strength and allows it to cradle the myriad of traditions, characteristics, regional identities and values that are taught as part of a Canadian education.