Re: "B.C. plans K-12 curriculum overhaul," Sept. 4.
The article and the splashy website referred to in the article (bcedplan.ca) asserted that the world had changed, but the K-12 curriculum had not kept up.
A true statement.
Then it proposed that new modern curriculum could be developed in consultation with administrators, the public, First Nations and university professors, the groups that have traditionally been involved in curriculum planning. Teachers are left out, ostensibly because they are currently engaged in job action.
It is not only the curriculum that is outdated - the curriculum-planning process as described in the article and on the website is outdated. Scientific knowledge of all aspects of human physical, mental and emotional development has vastly expanded over recent decades, but experts in these areas seem never to be called upon for advice in planning the school curriculum.
Even the illustrations on the website were outmoded. One showed four young girls eagerly peering over the shoulder of a boy at the keyboard of a computer. In another illustration children were using computers with obsolete cathode-ray displays while the rest of the world uses solid-state flat-screen displays.
Harvey Williams
Victoria
