Editor:
Joan Payne’s disparagement of our education system in her March 4 letter to the editor irks me. “Our education systems seem to have let us down when our citizens do not know what in in our constitution,” she laments. Does she know what the B.C. Social Studies curriculum includes? Did she research it – perhaps by asking a student or teacher, or by consulting curriculum guides which are available online? And what age are the citizens whose knowledge she disparages? If they are over 20 years old, then they are not representative of the current education system.
In fact, B.C. high schools do cover the Constitution. But more importantly, schools teach students to formulate questions about issues, and research skills necessary to find answers. A student or graduate may not know all the purviews of municipal/provincial/federal governments, but it is likely they know how to find out.
Knee jerk education bashing serves no purpose.
Lexa Pomfret, Retired teacher
Halfmoon Bay
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