Why is this charter school needed?

Charter schools are intended to meet needs that are not currently being addressed within the public school system. As parents and teachers of school-aged children, we are increasingly dismayed by the quality and nature of the education being offered. We are concerned that Alberta’s curriculum is at risk of being subordinated to partisan politics and special interest groups, and want to ensure that our childrens’ education is not disrupted, now or in the future, by shifts in the political winds. Furthermore, we note that many schools have adopted ideological and pedagogical approaches that:

a) Do not adequately stress knowledge acquisition. Over the last several decades, educators have been told that students do not need to acquire specific content knowledge. Influential segments of the education establishment have declared that learning facts is boring, irrelevant, or developmentally inappropriate for children, and that learners should instead focus on abstract skills, divorced from knowledge. Worse, some education philosophies dispute the very idea of truth, regarding it as a matter of mere subjective opinion. Although this has become the dominant approach to education, it is not supported by sound research. We understand that students crave knowledge. They benefit from learning, in a coherent and sequential way, a broad range of information—about history, geography, arts, mathematics, the natural sciences, the environment, and more. Having acquired a broad base of knowledge and converted their understandings to long-term memory, it becomes easier for students to build on what they have already learned . Far from being mutually exclusive, knowledge is also essential for learning skills, such as reading comprehension and creative thinking. As students’ knowledge grows, their sense of wonder and curiosity expands, as does their appreciation for how much remains yet unknown. In order to think carefully, reason clearly, and judge correctly, students must first seek knowledge of truth.

b) Deemphasize the importance of the teacher. Just as education faculties deemphasized knowledge acquisition, so too did they diminish the importance of engaged and knowledgable teachers. Rather than viewing teachers as instructors and role models who impart knowledge and instil good habits, popular approaches seek to flatten hierarchical relationships, treating teachers only as facilitators. Although intended to be empowering, these approaches are not effective, and they lead to worse academic and behavioural outcomes. We embrace teacher-led classrooms and systematic, explicit instruction. In addition to routinely reviewing content, asking and welcoming questions, checking for understanding, and encouraging active participation from students, teachers also model behaviour, and create a culture of respect and discipline.

c) Neglect students’ moral development. A depressingly common view is that the sole purpose of schooling is to equip students with practical skills and knowledge to compete in the workforce. While we agree that career achievement is important, it should not be regarded as the sole or the primary purpose of schooling, but rather as a happy byproduct. We believe that the purpose of education is to cultivate the mind and the heart, impart a love of virtue, and form the habits of temperance and self-mastery that will enable students to live good, healthy, and purposeful lives. We study great works of literature and art not because they are practical, but because they can teach us what it means to be human. As the name suggests, a liberal education is one that makes a person free in the truest sense; it is an emancipatory undertaking, not a utilitarian one.

d) Confine learners within a narrow ideological framework. Reflecting broader societal trends, we find that many schools have embraced a narrow set of ideological commitments and programs for social change. The sometimes-strident adoption of fashionable prejudices limits the space for open and free inquiry. It can create a hostile and repressive classroom environment, where questions or dissent against an ideological orthodoxy are not tolerated. And it confines students to view the world through the parochial frame of the present — a state that G.K. Chesterton referred to as the “degrading servitude of being a child of [one’s] own time.” Instead of telling students what to think about social issues, we want to empower them to seek truth and to reason clearly. This requires not dogmatic certainty, but a disposition of intellectual humility and curiosity. Students need opportunities to ask penetrating questions, challenge assumptions, have open conversations, and inhabit different perspectives. They should learn that disagreement is possible among friends, that true tolerance and diversity allow for differing viewpoints, and that mistakes are an inevitable part of intellectual discovery and personal growth.

e) Sever the next generation from the past. As part of a drive to make education serve practical purposes, the teaching of history has largely been neglected. To the extent that history is taught, it is often approached as a series of disjointed and unrelated events, typically featuring instances of oppression and victimization. Students are encouraged to judge the past by the values of the present, and come away believing that their ancestors were backwards and unenlightened. Having been denied access to the past, students are left unmoored in time. They are unable to link with previous generations, and lack an understanding or a sense of gratitude for the civilization they have inherited. We take a different approach. Without blindly glorifying the past or ignoring its darker episodes, we nonetheless believe that we are heirs to a great tradition, which is both fragile and precious. We believe that each generation has a right to enjoy that inheritance, and a duty to understand, transmit, and to build upon it. With Cicero, we hold that “to remain ignorant of things that happened before you were born is to remain a child.” By ensuring that learners are conversant with the past, we allow them to benefit from the unearned wisdom of the generations.

f) Encourage a sense of fragility and victimhood. Over the last decade and a half, the prevalence of anxiety disorders and depression among adolescents and young adults has skyrocketed. Adolescence is always a difficult period, and some of us are dealt particularly difficult challenges. Yet we owe it to young people to inquire into and to address, to the best of our ability, the causes that are exacerbating mental health struggles. One likely cause is the advent of smart phones and social media, which train young people to believe that their personal worth depends on competing for the praise of peers and strangers. Another factor contributing to growing rates of depression and anxiety is a culture that stresses fragility. To borrow from the work of Greg Lukianoff and moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt, a generation of young people has been taught that “what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker.” Trials, challenging experiences, and different opinions are viewed as threatening or harmful, and students come to see themselves as victims of external circumstance. Recognizing that many students do face significant challenges, we aim to provide a loving, stable, and supportive community where they can develop resilience and challenge themselves—physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Students learn that while they cannot always control what happens to them, they can exercise responsibility for their own reactions, and are capable of meeting life’s trials with grace and fortitude.