Sarcasm, the lowest form of wit.
Since you, Internet, do not spend time every day reading education-related news as part of your job, I can't imagine you've heard about this: An Alberta MLA introduces a private members' bill stating that in high school social studies, Canadian history should constitute 75% of the curriculum.
Um
?!?
I'm interested in encouraging patriotism as much as the next person, and like a lot of other Canadians I marvel at the way Americans can recite facts about their country. But 75%?!? This is going to mean cutting other material out of the curriculum, of course. So here, based on my sketchy rememberings of what I learned in high school social, is a list of topics we could probably eliminate...
- World War II. World War I is more significant from a Canadian perspective because it led to negotiations about Canadian sovereignty. II may have some historical significance, but with our new Canadian focus, we don't need it.
- The League of Nations. I think we should keep the UN, because Canada's role as a peacekeeping nation is an important part of our national identity. But the League doesn't matter to us at all. Ditto with Woodrow Wilson and his fourteen points, spheres of influence, manifest destiny, and fledgling European nations' journeys to independence. Gone.
- Communism, socialism, and Marxism; the Russian Revolution. In fact, since this is Alberta, let's eliminate any teaching about any political ideology to the left of, uh, the provincial Conservatives.
- The Cold War. Actually, we should probably do a little unit on the Cold War now that I think about it, because of NORAD and Lester Pearson. He won the Nobel Prize, right? A Canadian! We can spend a day on that.
3 comments:
Excuse me, Madame!
I cannot help but fail to notice sarcasm, a condition endemic to the politically oriented and officed among all Nations.
Personally, I am an advocate of all Means which would lead to the settlement of international disputes! And so I must object fiercely, like a great strident Bear shaking a captured Trout, to your bemusing suggestion that the frisky lads and fulsome ladies of your esteemed Nation have no need of education about that mighty convention of Great Powers known to all as the League of Nations!
Were we to eliminate the memorable tellings of this Noble Instrument, the stern Hand of Fate would once again scourge us to an elevation where we would see the great everlasting things which matter for a nation — the great peaks we had forgotten, of Honor, Duty, Patriotism, and clad in glittering white, the great pinnacle of Sacrifice pointing like a rugged finger to Heaven.
In short, Madame, I protest and non e too vociferously! As I have said in the now shadowy mists of times past, there is nothing more dangerous than to leap a chasm in two jumps!
LOLZ.
How would you even go about quantifying such a proposal?
Maybe we can have moles attend high school social studies classes like students and take notes about how frequently non-Canadians come up. Or we could call non-compliant teachers before the Leg and have them name names! At least then, in 25 years time, you'll have your own era of McCarthyism to talk about.
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