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FROM: THE MONTREAL GAZETTE NEWSPAPER

_http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=f1f0b94d-97
46-46f1-8a6a-8bddd1603d54_
(http://www.canada.com/montreal/montr...a-8bddd1603d54)

Schools Accused Of Skirting History

Neglected in favour of math, science; Subject should be made compulsory, 80%
indicate in Dominion Institute poll
RICHARD FOOT
(http://www.canada.com/montreal/montr...03d54#Soundoff) CanWest News Service

Friday, November 11, 2005


Canadian students are finishing high school without a basic understanding of
their country's history, and schools are ignoring the subject in favour of a
new fixation with math and science, says the Dominion Institute.
The private, Toronto-based advocacy group says provincial governments could
help solve the problem by making Canadian history a mandatory requirement of
high school graduation.
The institute's Remembrance Day poll - a national survey conducted last month
of more than 1,000 Canadians - suggests the public would go even further.
Eighty per cent of those surveyed said high schools should impose compulsory
courses in 20th-century Canadian history, including a study of the First and
Second World Wars.
Currently, only three provinces require high school students to study some
Canadian history.
"Incredible as it seems, there are provinces where you can go through school
and not be required to take a single course in Canadian history," said
Rudyard Griffiths, executive director of the institute.
"I think it's having a pernicious effect on Canadians' knowledge of history.
For one thing, we have high school graduates not being able to associate
D-Day with the invasion of Normandy."
In Manitoba, Grade 11 students must take a general history course that
includes a 20th-century Canadian component. Ontario has a compulsory Grade 10
Canadian history course that includes some study of the two World Wars, and
Quebec has a mandatory Grade 11 course focused on the history of Quebec.
In all other provinces, Canadian history is either optional in high school or
included piecemeal in broader social studies programs.
Griffiths says two recent trends in education are partly to blame for the
sidelining of Canadian history.
School systems have become far more focused on "employability" - giving
students skills that can lead to jobs - which has meant a heavy focus on math and
science at the expense of subjects like history, he says.
Across Canada, history is now one of the few high school subjects for which
instructors are not required to have a specialized prerequisite.
Another educational trend is the wrapping of history into more general
courses on social studies, which include myriad topics from civics to geography.
The institute's survey of 1,041 Canadians, conducted last month by the
Innovative Research Group, is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points 19
times out of 20.
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2005

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