What, Me Worry?: Revamping high school curriculum
Let's take a step back and see if we can't figure out how we got ourselves into this mess. We live in a society where indifferent adults, breed indifferent children. A viscous circle that is no doubt caused by generations of two kinds of parents: those that grope in the dark for the children's instruction booklet, and those that don't give a rat's ass. The latter generally have no doubt that they were born knowing how to raise kids anyway, and who am I to tell them that beating, I mean “spanking” their children is unnecessary, and harmful? Heck you can't see the bruises when their pants are on, so it's not abuse. Feel tough?
After these poor children are generally physically and emotionally abused by their misled parents for much of their childhood they are planted in the soils of public education, where their roots are dampened with knowledge by good intentioned teachers, but tainted with ignorance and hatred by peers. Peers that also have good intentions; the ones they inherited from their three parents: mom, dad, and commercial television. Among the lessons learned are, be tough like your old man, skinny, pretty, smart, white, rich, and crass.
Soon these little sponges are off to high school. It is here that their critical thinking skills should, and won't be developed. What will be developed however will be their socio-economic obsessions with materialism and physical appearance. These obsessions will lead to smoking, binge drinking, drunk driving, anorexia, bulimia, and self-loathing.
Many teachers and parents won't even know that these issues exist. The school boards will continue to push academic achievement, celebrating the over-achievers, while simultaneously disregarding those students with “less-lofty” goals of a trade or community college.
The point is - we need to rethink the high school curriculum. As well as focusing on academics like math and English, we have an obligation to the future of this country to teach more courses that are relevant to social issues.
At eighteen, this countries youth are eligible to vote! How many of them do? Very, very little. And of those who do, how many do you think are voting for who their parents vote for? Or even scarier, how many vote for the party with the best looking leader and so forth!? We can not blame them however; it is not their fault that they're so clueless. This is what I suggest. In the final year of high school, there should be at least these two mandatory courses added to the curriculum:
1. Introduction to Politics: This course will do just what the title suggests. By the end of the year the student will be expected to understand the platforms of at least the three-and-a-half major parties, and how each has affected this country in the past 30 years. Which party best represents your ideals? Which direction would you like to see this country heading in? Why voting Conservative isn't the best idea for those who are interested in their education, human rights, or the all-encompassing secular state.
2. Human Geography and the Environment: In this course students will learn about how generations of obsessive consumption and disregard for our fragile ecosystem has led to global warming. It will illustrate in plain terms exactly the extent of the damage, and what we are obligated to do to prevent further deterioration for the sake of subsequent generations.
The government doesn't want you to pay too much attention! If you knew everything that that you should know, you would arguably become a less dependable cog in the economic machine. Heck, by the time you're old enough to retire and enjoy this planet's natural playground there won't be any of it left, and all the politicians who kept you in the dark for so long will be long gone with their money in hand.
Unfortunately it's too late for all of us. High School is behind you and now it's your job to ask how you can make a difference. If you're interested, there's even a place right here in the school for you: please e-mail me about the Fanshawe Social Justice Club. You're needed desperately!
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
After these poor children are generally physically and emotionally abused by their misled parents for much of their childhood they are planted in the soils of public education, where their roots are dampened with knowledge by good intentioned teachers, but tainted with ignorance and hatred by peers. Peers that also have good intentions; the ones they inherited from their three parents: mom, dad, and commercial television. Among the lessons learned are, be tough like your old man, skinny, pretty, smart, white, rich, and crass.
Soon these little sponges are off to high school. It is here that their critical thinking skills should, and won't be developed. What will be developed however will be their socio-economic obsessions with materialism and physical appearance. These obsessions will lead to smoking, binge drinking, drunk driving, anorexia, bulimia, and self-loathing.
Many teachers and parents won't even know that these issues exist. The school boards will continue to push academic achievement, celebrating the over-achievers, while simultaneously disregarding those students with “less-lofty” goals of a trade or community college.
The point is - we need to rethink the high school curriculum. As well as focusing on academics like math and English, we have an obligation to the future of this country to teach more courses that are relevant to social issues.
At eighteen, this countries youth are eligible to vote! How many of them do? Very, very little. And of those who do, how many do you think are voting for who their parents vote for? Or even scarier, how many vote for the party with the best looking leader and so forth!? We can not blame them however; it is not their fault that they're so clueless. This is what I suggest. In the final year of high school, there should be at least these two mandatory courses added to the curriculum:
1. Introduction to Politics: This course will do just what the title suggests. By the end of the year the student will be expected to understand the platforms of at least the three-and-a-half major parties, and how each has affected this country in the past 30 years. Which party best represents your ideals? Which direction would you like to see this country heading in? Why voting Conservative isn't the best idea for those who are interested in their education, human rights, or the all-encompassing secular state.
2. Human Geography and the Environment: In this course students will learn about how generations of obsessive consumption and disregard for our fragile ecosystem has led to global warming. It will illustrate in plain terms exactly the extent of the damage, and what we are obligated to do to prevent further deterioration for the sake of subsequent generations.
The government doesn't want you to pay too much attention! If you knew everything that that you should know, you would arguably become a less dependable cog in the economic machine. Heck, by the time you're old enough to retire and enjoy this planet's natural playground there won't be any of it left, and all the politicians who kept you in the dark for so long will be long gone with their money in hand.
Unfortunately it's too late for all of us. High School is behind you and now it's your job to ask how you can make a difference. If you're interested, there's even a place right here in the school for you: please e-mail me about the Fanshawe Social Justice Club. You're needed desperately!
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
