To: mssmith@hotmail.com
Cc: Principal
Bcc:
Subject: What Every Canadian Should Know
Dear Mrs. Smith,
Thank you for your e-mail. I am so excited that you will soon be coming to visit us in our classroom. To answer your questions about my beliefs about teaching and teaching in the Canadian school system, I believe that we should teach our students about all aspects of life to paint them a more complete picture of the world and how things work. In terms of academics, I feel as though students should have enough core knowledge of, for example, math, to get them through all the activities that they would need math for out in the real world (graphing, calculating taxes, etc.) as well as the fundamental knowledge they would need to continue on and take university courses in that subject area. Personally, I remember walking into a university geography class and feeling completely lost because I didn’t understand the subject matter. I went home and looked at my high school geography binder to refresh my memory and realized that this is the exact same stuff we had learned in high school, but just with an added level of complexity. I was so happy to have gotten a good core understanding of this subject in order to move on to learn more. I believe this to be true for not only academic subjects, but also things like athletics as well as the arts. Luckily for me, the Canadian school system/provincial government in general seems to share that belief. They have, for example, in British Columbia implemented a new curriculum, the DPA – Daily Physical Activity – that ensures that al students get a good amount of physical activity everyday, not just in physical education class twice per week.
More specifically, one area that I think is essential for children to have good core knowledge of is social studies. In terms of history, I think it is so important to know where you are coming from and why our country is the way it is today. It gives students a better understanding of where they live and hopefully a sense of pride in their country. In terms of geography, I think it is important to know where the different provinces are as well as capitals and where parliament is, so we know where all the important decisions concerning our country are made. It is also important to know where you are situated in the world to learn more about natural resources and the connection between natural resources and trading and the economy, which ties right into the political science aspect of out curriculum where children learn all about our current government system (how it works) as well as how it came to be and how it shaped our country.
Here is the Government of British Columbia website, which has all the curriculum information for each grade and subject, if you are interested in reading a little bit more.
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/welcome.php
I hope this information has helped you a little, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any more questions.
Taylor