Canada's schools are flunking history
Published Thursday July 2nd, 2009
A recent Harris-Decima survey found that nearly half of Canadians polled in May think Canada's educational systems don't adequately prepare people for the demands of contemporary economic reality, just 37 per cent believing high schools do their job of preparing people for the workforce "very well."
On June 15 the Dominion Institute, an organization dedicated to promotion of Canada's history, shared citizenship and democratic institutions, released its latest Canadian History Report Card survey, the 2007 version of which had found 82 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 24 unable to pass a simple 30-question "exam" about Canadian history.
Another Dominion Institute survey by Ipsos Reid released this week for Canada's 142nd birthday found that while 88 per cent of Canadians polled recognized pop star Celine Dion's photo, 77 per cent Wayne Gretzky's image, and 73 per cent could identify former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, only 19 per cent were able to name father of Medicare Tommy Douglas and 27 per cent Metis leader Louis Riel from their photos, and substantially fewer than half recognized either Canada's first prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald (41 per cent) whose visage graces the $10 bill, or current Governor General Michaelle Jean (49 per cent).
The report abstract observes: "It seems difficult to comprehend that recent graduates of high school know so little about Canadian history.... What exactly do we require our students to learn about our country's past?" This year the Institute examined history taught in Canadian schools, grading provinces and territories on their Canadian history curriculum's quality at the high school level.
Findings reveal educational systems failing in terms of educating students about Canada's story, Canadian history too frequently lumped together with a hodgepodge of other "social studies" as an afterthought.
The Canadian History Report Card gave four provinces an "F" mark, no province received an "A", and only four - Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia - require Canadian history as a mandatory high school course.
"The findings are, simply put, troubling," commented Marc Chalifoux, Executive Director of the Dominion Institute. "Too many provinces and territories do not take seriously the teaching of Canadian history. It is little wonder that so many students graduate from high school without a basic knowledge of our country's past."
What does historical knowledge have to do with preparing people for entry into the workforce? Plenty. No matter how technically savvy someone is, if historically ignorant they can't legitimately be considered "educated." If you don't know where you've been, you can't adequately understand who you are or chart where you're headed.
History informs us about how people and societies operate, helps us understand how recent, current, and projected changes affecting our lives may unfold and the causes involved, and serves as our laboratory for analyzing data from the past to serve as best evidence and predictor of how societies and economies work. The past profoundly influences the present, which in turn impacts the future.
In our efforts to solve present problems, it is invaluable, even crucial, to examine how similar or even completely different challenges were addressed in the past, and only through the study of history can we understand how things change, begin to comprehend factors that cause change, and determine what elements of institutions or societies survive and thrive despite change.
Studying history hones abilities to critically assess and process various sorts of evidence and helps develop capacity to make coherent arguments based on a variety of data - skills applicable to situations encountered in everyday work environments and very often precisely the sort prized by employers - a broad intellectual perspective preparing potential employees with the range of knowledge and flexibility required in many work tasks.
Study of history is also crucial to development of citizenship in a democratic society and protection against tyranny. Czech historian Milan Hubl, cited by the novelist Milan Kundera, noted: "The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history, Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster."
In short, history, is indispensable in providing the only extensive database available for the study of the human condition.
What happened? Popular culture and educational systems were hijacked by faulty philosophies and false notions based in mid-20th century liberal humanism and 1960s youth culture. As people whose values, tastes, belief systems, and intellectual foundations (so to speak) were formed by those influences took over education bureaucracies, a cultural continuum stretching back over 3,000 years of Western civilization was severed in the name of "progressive education."
Today's kids, and society in general, pay the price of this folly, robbed of their cultural and historical heritage, and that's the crime of the century.
Charles W. Moore is a Nova Scotia based freelance writer and editor. He can be reached by e-mail at cwmoore@gmx.net. His column appears each Thursday.
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Human folly often does precede great suffering. A well developed historical perspective and a mind trained in critical thinking might not prevent all suffering but it can certainly free us from the folly of repeating failure.
You might think this need to be informed by history and taught history would be apparent and find acceptance especially in education. But the contrary is revealed and described here in these sad numbers. What is apparent is that this perspective is not found sufficiently in our youth nor by many of those responsible for their education.
Riel is a hero and MacDonald is a drunken bumb, the latter was the first thing I heard on CBC this Canada Day. Canada itself will soon be history.
In the meantime, I suspect that Quebec kids get plenty of Quebec generated history.
Why dont you check your conspiracy theories at the door pal. History is beautiful, because of the context we can look back and view it in. We are always looking through the prism of the present time. Most people (unfortunately) are christians, their history book (the bible) speaks of genocides commanded by God - they don't seem to have any problems with this.
I have no doubt MacDonald was a drunk and that Riel was a hero to some - Im also not so stupid to think that all historical tales can be boiled down to stereotypical absolutes.
Like most think - it's complicated. But why the lack of love for our french canadian brothers and sister? Dont be so petty - its unattractive.
For these reasons, maybe that is why New Brunswick received a "C", instead of an "F", higher than Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and PEI! This is nothing to write home about, but improvement is improvement.
One of the issues facing History courses is the length of time spent. These courses are semestered. In a school year during the 1980's, students spent 180 hours; the 1990's, this was down to 90 hours; the 2000's, it is now down to 80 hours! In Math, Sciences, and Language Arts, courses were added, or they were prolonged for the whole year. Not in the Social Sciences!
Not all students are Academics, so there should be a choice. For students intending to pursue academic studies, they should receive a year long course of World and Canadian Studies of some kind with an emphasis on research and learning. For students intending to pursue a non-academic stream, their focus should be more practical: how does our political system work? How do our laws and justice system function? Where does it all come from? ETC...
In both cases, students should learn about Canada's place in History and in the World!