Dear Ms. Sandhu,
I am very excited to have you at the school next month in order to learn more about not only the British Columbian curriculum, but how it is handled within the walls of our school. As such, I would love to reply to your request to learn more about the foci of our educational aims.
At our school, we are very acutely focused on creating not only academically strong, well-rounded students, but good citizens and representatives of our district and country; the students that we teach today will grow up to be ambassadors of our school, our city, and our country. We are, therefore, very driven to achieve great success in crafting both ‘good Canadians’, and professional well-rounded adults.
With respect to the former label, there is a strong emphasis on the way in which we lead our students through the social studies curriculum. This material is essentially two-pronged and divided into the education of history and its vast importance, and the construction of critical questioning and analysis skills in order to determine intent and bias. Underneath each of these headers is of course a myriad of materials that span the different grade levels. Historically-speaking, we examine the importance of both Canadian and world history, with a focalized lens drawn upon certain key individuals and events like John A. MacDonald and Confederation, the World Wars and their implications on trade and economy, Terry Fox and philanthropic views, and even Chris Hadfield and his exploration of humanity through space. Of course, none of these facts or names alone mean anything without being able to interpret and analyze the words, actions, and symbols for which they all stand, and how their representations are remembered through time.
Separate to creating citizenship in our students is the vision to create the next generation of well-rounded and professional adults. In so doing, there must be a functional approach to educating them to understand not only their current present lives, but all the allusions to past and future entities. This is accomplished through the acquisition of proper language and grammatical skills, learning about various practices and mediums of art and music, and engaging in daily exercises of physical, mental, and emotional health. Finally, the (perhaps frightening) reality is that many of the jobs for which we are training our students do not yet even exist. For this reason, a strong emphasis on mathematical foundations, scientific understandings, and technological intelligences must be forged at this age in order to promote the strongest future for our students, and for our country.
I wish you well in all of your preparations, and look very forward to meeting you next month.
Sincerely,
Andrew Campbell