Reader “Pongo”, via email;
Having just moved to BC from Saskatoon, I expected to find Lotus land to be just that. But upon receiving my daughter’s Grade 2 report card, the top category that was graded was “Social Responsibility”
I assumed they’d mastered the instruction of Mathematics, Science, English, and other subjects completely, as moving on to designing society would remove valuable time from the classroom.
Visiting the BC Ministry of Education, one can peruse the rather creepy guide used to assess the children. Maybe we can compete with other countries by being waaaaaaay nicer than them! There are laudable goals, such as knowing rights and responsibilities in our Democracy, but isn’t that what Social Studies is for?
Peruse the rather creepy guide for yourself…
The ohhhh soooo progressive nutter who recently took over as head of the UBC Faculty of Education has said her #1 task is to make social justice and responsibility the core of the teacher education curriculum in BC.
A whole generation of teachers creeping around the Scarfe building at UBC having their little socialist pinheads filled full of socialist mumbo-jumbo.
Sad really.
I left England to get away from this kind of lunacy. Seems this part of Canada is only a few years behind in the descent into PC mumbo jumbo LaLa land. Maybe I should have moved to the prairies!
Exercising
Democratic
Rights and
Responsi-
bilities
• shows emerging sense of
responsibility, generally following
classroom rules; able to identify
simple ways to improve the
school, community, or world
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/perf_stands/social_resp_worksheet.pdf
That’s for K- grade 3
“able to identify
simple ways to improve the
school, community, or world ”
Read: “Able to recite leftist boilerplate like a trained freakin seal”
I went to Catholic school and we learned all about ethics, fairness, charity, and “treating people the way we want to be treated”. Why shouldn’t non-religious schools promote things we all agree to be good behavior? At they very least, parents have a right to know how their children treat others at school so they can parent as they see fit knowing how their child behaves when they aren’t there?
The irony of this is remarkable. The people pushing this agenda of forced indoctrination of children are the same people who scream bloody murder if parents impose a religious education and values on their own children. I also know from personal experience of having raised four children in BC that this type of imposed indoctrination by the school system does not work. True, the children quickly learn to keep their opinions to themselves while at school but they never buy into the imposed agenda. Children are not a vacuum to be filled by the agenda and ideas of others.
My advice, have a fast boat handy so you can get out of Dodge when they finally close the border and open the re-education camps.
Liberalism is a death cult. Treat it as such.
I’m not sure I see the problem here. The language used is touchy-feely but most of the goals seem to be relatively benign. My son is Chinese and has white parents. That is very different. I would be very upset if other parents felt it was OK for their children to poke fun at him because he is different. If a little girl wears a hijab I would expect my son to accept her. She is a child and not responsible for her parent’s latent misogyny. Is that bad? And in the older grades it appears to emphasize giving back to the community. When I coached soccer I was very proud of my girls when we mentored a younger team of girls. Especially when some continued helping out with the team on their own time.
Social responsibility is a conservative value, isn’t it? Sure, we wouldn’t use those words. We don’t want our kids to be jerks to people who are different somehow or act badly in school or punch other kids when they have a disagreement, do we? If it was just labeled it behaviour instead of social responsibility I bet we’d all be fine with it.
BTW, the correct answer to the question posed in the cartoon is “Beat them up, so they remember for next time.”
Well, batman, public schools insist on being non-religious but in the same breath they are preaching secular religion. Not just a diverse array of secular religions but exclusively the progressive religion – statism, multiculturalism, environmentalism, communitarianism, etc. As a person who is non-religious, libertarian, and a free-market capitalist, I resent that the schools are teaching values that conflict with mine. IMO, public schools should not be allowed to stray beyond academic subjects. If they do then the courses should be optional and with parental approval.
Heh, I’m reminded of A Boy Named Sue. A little adversity is a good thing.
De longer I live here, diverse it gets.
Good points, but my main concern, aside from it’s soft-pedal ideology approach, is that it takes away from teachers time. Focus on the Core!
In some places, it skirts dangerously close to social work / psychology…no experts to be had in the school system as far as I know, especially given the number of “ADD” cases thrown around casually (all those poor boys on meds).
Teach my children what they need to know to be competitive in the world at large. Math. Sciences. Language. Period.
I also wonder how the expected answer to the question ties in with teaching a man to fish rather than fishing for him?
A question to make leftist’s heads burst 🙂
Wow…school..especially the younger years…has become a breeding ground for mediocrity and group think. It has for some time, but this stuff takes it to a whole new level of indoctrination.
Let’s look at how a very smart young child, yearning to learn about the world, use his or her skills and values, and most importantly, to develop his or her ability to conceptualize would perform under those standards. He or she would likely be asked to put everyone else ahead of their own aspirations, to fit in with the group, to accept that they are equal to the dullest and most irrational of peers. A child smart enough to recognize these things would most probably separate themselves from the group, would be frustrated with the inability to learn real, objective concepts and information, would not accept others opinion before their own…in short, would be the ‘antisocial’, frustrated loner who is deemed a failure.
It’s a small wonder so many serial killers have huge IQ’s :S
Yeh yeh but how many sticks of C4 does student x need to set their human rights mark in rubble? Will using less sticks than required lead to low self esteem? Shouldn’t you aid student x to demonstrate your solidarity by creating a diversion?
I’m afraid I don’t see the problem. The focus of the guide seems to be to encourage children to be responsible, respectful of others (and adults), able to share, able to ‘allow’ others to, eg, win the game.
Children who are not guided by responsible adults into constructive social behaviour can turn out to be selfish, angry, unable to relate to others.
This used to be the role of parents and church. But more and more, especially with a diversity of backgrounds, children are susceptible to following the route of their immigrant parents who reject interaction with ‘others’. Therefore the schools have to take on this role.
I don’t see any left (or right) agenda. There doesn’t seem to be any politics. Perhaps I missed the AGW or Earth Hour mantras which ARE political and which I reject. But these basic social skills seem to me to be necessary and serve as a ground foundation for later studies.
Yes – reading, math, geography, history must also all be taught and are vital – but these social skills of interaction and developing responsibility seem to me to be necessary.
It would be a great start here in “lotus land” if all ethnic groups would get together and finally nail down which side of the sidewalk we were all going to walk on, so that we don’t keep making these elaborate sweeps around each other almost at random. Then also taking the esteemed Dr Suzuki well out to sea and heaving him overboard so he can commune with Gaia up close and personal like would show great social consensus and would (like the teachers say) bring about a better world.
ET: The whole thrust of the k- 3 system is responsibility to the collective, not responsibility to self.
Furthermore, both are abstract concepts, and the k – 3 brain is not capable of much abstract thought … that kicks in about grade 4 – 6.
The k – 3 program will have very little longterm effect on children. It simply reveals the mindset of the authors.
Anyone know the name of the person who came up with this?
This is a very scary document, especially criterions 3 and 4. This is indoctrination in social collectivism and will not so subtly breed little idealistic world activists. Hopefully, parents will re-focus their children on individual effort, core skills, how to detect bias and practical survival skills. No wonder there is bullying if children have to lie to their teachers in order to get a good grade in social responsibility.
First day this coming school year I’ll be going in to “remind” the faculty about our position on indoctrination and other claptrap that is to be kept away from our boy.
I’ll be throwing the lawyer in the room first. Like a hand grenade.
“Anyone know the name of the person who came up with this?”
It was either Marx or Engel.
I just wrote one of the contacts on that page, asking if she’s the correct one to ask a few detailed questions about the material therein. I added that if she is not, to provide me the name & e-mail address of whom I should write.
Based on what I saw there, the first 3 questions that come to mind are:
1. Are the Human Rights described in this program in sync with the findings of the Canadian Human Rights Commission and those of other Human Rights Commissions across Canada?
2. With regard to Environmental Responsibility, does your Ministry support or not support the Theory of Man-Made Global Warming?
3. Regarding the situation of the caning of some convicted individuals in Singapore, what is the position of your ministry on such punishment?
Any other questions you can think of?
While social responsibility is a worthy goal and something that should be practiced, I think the placement of it as a core subject and gradable, is a little over the top. Like the Boy Scouts, a good idea ends up with scouts dragging little old ladies across the street to earn a merit badge, whether she wants to cross or not. The message is being screwed by the messenger.
“We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!”
Pink Floyd
The Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” should cover most social situations for children and adults.
I like the kid (Grades 8-10 section) who is concerned because “I could go to Mexico and be put in the electric chair for not wearing a sumbraro (sic), or something”. Alas, his teacher does not feel the same way; she feels that “this student offered an extremely egocentric response” and “tends to be judgmental; appears insensitive” (rather judgemental, that).
Seriously, some teachers are wonderful and brilliant and inspirational and such, but a lot of them are fussy, punctilious, poorly educated and just not very bright.
Honestly, worse than the icky snitch-on-your-neighbour be multicultural PC stuff here is the mind numbing idiocy of it all. For these poor kids to have to sit through this stuff for hours and have to “learn” it qualifies as some form of torture, surely.
I wonder how many potential good policemen and women have never been accepted or promoted because they haven’t answered these social justice questions (and multiculturalism questions) correctly.
My son is in an International Programme in high school so he can be with the better students. But the whole programme is full of propaganda about climate change and changing the world. He just got a 60 in one of his science course because he didn’t answer the exam question “correctly” about global warming.
We are going to challenge the mark because his school average is very important for applications for CEGEP.
The really sad thing is that teachers are taught what to teach not how to teach. Process is dealt with as an addendum if at all.
Those teachers who are naturally creative seem to rise to the top through intuition and hard work. Good teachers are not a product of University, they exist despite it.
Syncro
… but isn’t that what Social Studies is for?”
Actually, the term “social studies” is creepy enough. (And I did my schooling in the 60s when that term was already in use, tho’ I survived.)
At one time there were subjects like Civics (where one learned about legitimate civil liberties and responsibilities) and History (where one learned about the development of those liberties).
Sadly, no more …..
“Seriously, some teachers are wonderful and brilliant and inspirational and such, but a lot of them are fussy, punctilious, poorly educated and just not very bright.”
You are absolutely right about that. An awful lot of teachers have an attitude that drives me crazy. In the school I went to as a kid, and at the school my kids go to now I would bet that the average parent is better educated than the teachers. You would never get that from their condescending attitude. Luckily my kids seem to have good teachers, but its very early years for them so far.
Social ‘responsibility’ should never be foisted on a child. Children are totally dependant on Adults for existence, they are by nature, selfish – self preservation. All of nature’s babies are selfish – watch a big bouncing eaglet demanding more food from harassed parents or a foal taking cover behind his dame…they take from their parents and give back nothing until they become parents themselves. The Laws of Nature apply to humans too; these pablum guidelines are designed by a group of people who have never been dependable and who plan always to be dependant. Children who have parents who will not tolerate cruelty to younger and weaker kids will raise stalwart, fine citizens; teachers who replace cut and dried rules with intimidation (encouraging tattle tales and rhetorical spewing the words that teachers, who do not feed, water and cloth those little people, want to hear; will result in the creation of a generation of hypocrites. Oh, wait….
Sad, eh?! The main purpose of story time for K-3 at our school seemed to be ensuring that kids knew it was alright to have 2 dads or 2 moms. When I suggested that maybe it was my job as a parent to handle that sort of stuff, other parents looked at me like I was Hitler! Most teachers, though, when you talk to them one on one and get involved,if you are lucky enough to have the time to do that, do an amazing job. High school was the worst, by the way. Teachers by that point are just hard core socialists and they don’t let the curriculum get in the way of their sermonizing.
Those commenting are divided on their degree of concern about this “curriculum”. True, ET, that ome of the honeyed words in the document seem quite benign, but those of us who have long been involved in teacher education can be more suspicious.
The core *educational* responsibility of schools in this area is to teach and to expect “respect for persons”. Not only is that a principle of most major religions, it is fundamental to an educational experience. This doesn’t mean respect for other people’s ideas, behaviours, beliefs, values, politics, etc., all of which we may find objectionable. It does mean that we don’t resort to ad hominem arguments, and we don’t ridicule our classmates because of what or who they are. If this was the aim of the BC curriculum, I and many other people on this list could support it. But….
Let’s look at the “social responsibility worksheet” provided by the Ministry. From Grades K-3, the Ministry seeks to push kids to be “welcoming, friendly, kind, and helpful”; most parents teach comparable behaviours, but in a context. Schools can expect children to be respectful of others (and not, for example, to bully other children), but wearing a smiley face is not an educational outcome. Children are also expected to go along politely with whatever nonsense their teachers prescribe, and, already, they are expected to begin the process of thinking of ways to boss people about in order to “improve the world.”
At Grades 4 and 5, they are expected to show “interest in correcting injustice”. This is a reasonable expectation for this age, but, in practice, we have seen children in these grades given assignments to re-copy letters supplied by Amnesty International in support of people who may or may not have been unjustly incarcerated. Most Grade 4 or 5 teachers don’t usually countenance their students writing to support pro-life demonstrators, persecuted Christians in Iraq, Syria, and Indonesia, or white farmers brutalized in Zimbabwe.
By Grades 6 to 8, students are expected to show “some support for human rights” though this seldom includes the rights of the unborn.
From Grades 8 to 10 students are expected to be “increasingly willing to speak up or take action
to support diversity and defend human rights” But supporting diversity is like supporting “weather”. Canada as a country is culturally diverse, and it snows in the winter. We might think that life would be better in a more moncultural society (like Finland, say, or Japan), or if our winters were like those in Alabama, but our students are not even permitted to entertain the thought. Diversity needs to be recognized and understood; it has no intrinsic cultural value and certainly doesn’t require “support”.
The ideological agenda is more fully played out in the detailed outcomes and expectations for each grade level.
Black Mamba writes, “Seriously, some teachers are wonderful and brilliant and inspirational and such, but a lot of them are fussy, punctilious, poorly educated and just not very bright.” Quite true, but they don’t differ much from their counterparts in most other professions. Biased, wooly, and agenda-driven teaching doesn’t start when young people enter an Education program, and after their undergraduate degrees, most of our students have already booked their spot on the float at the parade.
• shows a sense of responsibility
and community-mindedness;
increasingly interested in taking
action to improve the world
The following is a cut and paste from the Ministry document of the aspects that describe a social deviant (the font: Utopia-Black!):
Quick Scale: Grades 4 to 5 Social Responsibility
Not Yet Within Expectations
• often unfriendly,
ignoring the feelings
and needs of others
• shows little commitment
to the group or
class and has difficulty
following basic rules
for working together
• does not take
responsibility or listen
to another’s views in a
conflict situation; tends
to blame and put
down others
• has difficulty stating
problems or issues, and
may be unable to
suggest or choose
appropriate strategies
• sometimes disrespectful;
appears unaware of
others’ rights
• tends to be apathetic
and may feel
powerless to affect
classroom, school,
community, or world
I’ve been an educator for nearly 40 years. I’ve dealt with plenty of social deviants: in order to improve and EARN self-respect, which many are quite capable of doing, they need consistency, structure, and clear, appropriate consequences.
My experience has been that the social deviant—they seem to come, almost equally, from all social classes these days—is now treated as a victim by most administrators, who let the very kids, who REALLY need consequences, off the hook.
In fact, the rubric in my jurisdiction specifically lets principals, at their discretion, exempt problem students from unpleasant consequences for their irresponsible actions. I’ve seen this happen over and over again—for purely political reasons: the principal keeps everything under wraps and so doesn’t have to deal with either angry parents—who take their kid’s side—or supervisors of higher rank, who NEVER want to deal with problems. “What, our school board? It’s a happy, dappy place and everyone’s doing just swell.”
The teachers? Not so much. In fact, they’re horrified at what the kids are allowed to get away with. This administrative sell-out altogether undermines both the teacher’s authority and self-esteem. In too many schools, the worst kids do pretty well what they want and the teachers are left to cope, in the trenches, as best they can. It’s a sad, very bad scene. (I’m sure many readers here are all too aware of the immature, self-referential egos, who look like adults, but aren’t—those would be the parents and left-wing-conforming administrators—who are not forming citizens of our children, but spoiled, irresponsible brats. Being scared would be an appropriate response—so would being angry. Whoops, I fail: that’s judgemental and not at all a nice thing to say!)
This document is HYPOCRITICAL, to the NTH degree, for the above reason and also for the fact that it will be very selectively applied: that’s called ARBITRARY MEASURES! E.g, Can one imagine how an observant Christian, who objects to the pro-free sex agenda—promiscuity, early intercourse, promotion of the homosexual agenda, etc.—would be treated by the school board? Check out the “Not Yet Within Expectations” rubrics above. The parents of the kid would be considered abject failures at both social conformity, and at demonstrating “compassion and openness to diversity”. (Remember, in these PC times, compassion and diversity are a one way street.)
The whole thing’s a crock: a wolf in sheep’s clothing. But, what else would one expect from our socialist, unintelligent, totally conformist and tyrannical public boards?
What. A. Mess.
“What would you do if some of your classmates made fun of a student who could not speak English very well?”
Obviously a trick question.
“The really sad thing is that teachers are taught what to teach not how to teach”
My fairly recent experience has been exactly the opposite and I’ve never heard anyone disagree. Students need a degree in their teachable subject to be accepted and college is about process. Now, having said that, it’s a mind numbing experience of limited value, but it is about how to teach. In fairness, apart from the BS, it is about the only to help a beginner begin. And survive!
Holy Smokes.
“ignoring the feelings and needs of other(s)”
Hmmmm…..so, now a boy has learn how to think like a girl to pass grade 3.
Men went along with this worship of feelings?
Pussies
The only upside? I feel better about the 150K I paid to private schools
C-junk – I’ll disagree.
I think it is important to assist a child to move from the self-absorbed ‘Me’ (a la Obama) to a consideration that they are an individual within a community. This is a reality; our species is social.
Morality and ethics are grounded in reality – the reality that we are both individuals and members of a community. Children are taught this, hopefully, at first by the parents. They are taught to ‘say thankyou’, to stand aside for someone in the aisle..etc. To share their toys with a guest child.
The school continues this socialization – and it is NOT the same as multiculturalism. I’m strongly against multiculturalism, but children do have to be taught social interactions.
I disagree with jema54 that without such training, children will naturally become good parents. We all know of abysmal parents.
Children in K-3 are most certainly gradually capable of abstract thoughts; I know of many in that age group who are pondering the meaning of ‘death’, of ‘following rules’, of ‘what does it mean to be good’ and so on.
I think it’s an error to merge these ‘ethics of living together’ with the leftist indoctrination of politically correct ideology. There is nothing common about the two agendas. The latter is indeed brainwashing – and takes place at a later age, particularly in high school. This is what should be abolished.
But this early phase is all about ‘getting along with other people’. The focus on individual strengths is not ignored; grade school children get individual ‘awards’ for ‘perseverance’, for ‘finishing tasks’..apart from grades.
Lookout has it nailed! Testify!
(No sarcasm intended)
Roseberry, we’re on the same wave length here. Thanks for your post.
Not true, ET. Social justice and the AGW environmental agenda start in elementary school at grade 1. I’ve had quite a few discussions with my kids about what they are learning at school as opposed to what I believe. It is surprisingly difficult to counter what they are learning at school, even when armed with facts and reason. Peer pressure, deference to authority and conformity are powerful tools. IMO, even if the “socializing” curriculum is neutral in theory, it is biased in practice.
As a parent, I resent having the left-leaning teaching profession encroach on my turf.
Hey all,
As someone who lives in BC, I’ve seen this sort of thing going on for years and it’s frightening. There are only two ways to change it though: 1) –we need to get people involved in school boards and provincial politics to change the system, and more importantly, 2). we need competent people to become teachers. There are a lot of good ones out there, but too many are head in the clouds socialists that don’t know anything about the world. After having done a stint in the military and a longer one in the oil patch (with a BA in English) I’m heading back to school in my 30’s to become a teacher. We need more people that have actually gone out in the world and worked to do likewise.
Great another generation of social activists who won’t be qualified to work for a living but will demand GOV. grants to pay for their useless marxists activist’s hobbies. In my last three years of highschool we had a class called “Skills for living” we learned how to balance and manage a check book, what compound interest meant and basic skill sets for existing in a capitalists’ society apparently being a social justice activist replaced that useful class. Wanna bet those kids will never know how to balance a checkbook?
‘tends to view problems in black and white; has difficulty considering more than one perspective, generating strategies, and predicting consequences’
Pheck, sounds like someone has a serious problem with somebody else have strong personal discipline, leadership, and can express their opinions exceedingly well, perhaps even forcefully. Personally I’d wear the grade of ‘not yet within expectations’ with pride to the question of: Solving problems in peaceful ways.
ET, please correct me if I’m wrong but I think the difference of opinion between you and the others on here is one of “what would likely happen with this course” vs. “what’s actually written in the guidelines”.
That which is provided by the BC Gov’t is clearly just a template. But too many of us have heard too many stories of Extreme Leftist teachers who will take this template and run with it. There appear to be a lot of code phrases in the template that likely have a very definite meaning in the hands of a large number of educators.
To be fair to all, we’d actually have to get first-hand accounts of HOW this course is being taught to see whether our fears are proven true.
Maybe they should all get back to teaching the basics.When a student graduates from Gr12 would you not think they could do simple math?
I was in local convenience store yesterday,made a purchase,total,$18.21..I gave the young new grad a $20 bill..she punched this in the till.I found the .21 cents change,put it on counter..she looked at me in horror..said:”Oh,I can’t figure that out that quick”..proceeded to try and count out the $1.79 change that the machine told her to give me.I persist,gave her a quick math lesson,to the delight of a businessman in a suit beside me,as he muttered under his breath..”holy shit!”..unbelievable what they push through the school system.
How is important.
Syncro
I felt a rant coming on. After reading the posts it has waned. ET,is spot on. Children must be taught the golden rule,do onto others as you would hve them do onto you
. The evaluation and subsequent remedies should be watched closely.Social responsibility is necessary,bullying and prejudice,that may show parenting rather than a “bad seed” should also be watched.
Am I Already Dead?
“So”, I asked, “You are asking me not to try and help students understand the subject. They must learn to simply repeat facts that they need to know and learn how to select formulae from the list at the front of the exam booklet (given in words not pesky symbols. Correct units are on the exam paper in the space before the gap for their numerical answer), then put two numbers in to find the value of a third.
“Yes”, she said.
I thought to myself.
“Am I already dead?”
http://kevboyle.blogspot.com/2010/07/am-i-already-dead.html