Hipster Duck
Senior Member
I thought this might be an interesting thread to open up, although I don't know whether this belongs here or in the Politics section.
First off, do you believe that the role of public education is to mould a more civil society? Secondly, and this can be answered whether you answered yes or no to the first question, is what would you do to change Ontario's current high school curriculum?
I personally think that there should be a greater emphasis on geography instruction. It might have changed since I went to HS over 10 years ago, but, back then, "geography" meant learning about how continents were formed, how to read relief maps and some understanding of spatial context. Human geography, however, was sort of glossed over (this might have been just the case at my school or school board - I don't want to generalize).
I've often thought that our society has suffered from most people's level of geography knowledge. This manifests itself in several ways, whether its a lack of spatial awareness (a lot of people can't tell which direction they're traveling) to much deeper cultural insensitivities (if you're not able to find a country on the map, you're less likely to inquire about their cultural customs, how their society functions, etc.) that unfortunately misinform a lot of our judgments. I feel that people have become more intellectually insular and tend to frame things solely from their own cultural reference point because their lack of awareness of the world prevents them from being in other people's shoes. On the whole, I think that this makes geography easily as important as science or math - both of which are treated much more seriously in our school systems.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents. What would you change?
First off, do you believe that the role of public education is to mould a more civil society? Secondly, and this can be answered whether you answered yes or no to the first question, is what would you do to change Ontario's current high school curriculum?
I personally think that there should be a greater emphasis on geography instruction. It might have changed since I went to HS over 10 years ago, but, back then, "geography" meant learning about how continents were formed, how to read relief maps and some understanding of spatial context. Human geography, however, was sort of glossed over (this might have been just the case at my school or school board - I don't want to generalize).
I've often thought that our society has suffered from most people's level of geography knowledge. This manifests itself in several ways, whether its a lack of spatial awareness (a lot of people can't tell which direction they're traveling) to much deeper cultural insensitivities (if you're not able to find a country on the map, you're less likely to inquire about their cultural customs, how their society functions, etc.) that unfortunately misinform a lot of our judgments. I feel that people have become more intellectually insular and tend to frame things solely from their own cultural reference point because their lack of awareness of the world prevents them from being in other people's shoes. On the whole, I think that this makes geography easily as important as science or math - both of which are treated much more seriously in our school systems.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents. What would you change?