B.C. education minister Rob Fleming says a worksheet provided to Grade 10 students in Kamloops titled “Political Spectrum Case Studies” is “offensive.”
Fleming told Global News he learned through the media about an assignment that was supposed to teach Grade 10 students at Valleyview Secondary School in Kamloops about the different views in partisan politics. Students were given a list of statements and were asked to answer whether they reflected left-wing or right-wing views.
“A teacher made a mistake. They used a resource that didn’t do a good job and didn’t teach the curriculum well,” Fleming said.
Fleming said a parent did “the right thing” and complained about the resource to the school principal. The principal spoke to the teacher, and the teacher will teach the material better, Fleming said.
“This is a not a prescribed worksheet from the ministry and I found it to be offensive,” Fleming said.
Matt DeFouw complained to the school after his son sent him a copy of the worksheet. DeFouw, who is a self-described right-wing conservative, said students should be taught that the political spectrum is much more complex.
“You have conservatives … being painted as misogynist, racist xenophobes who want to enact a brutal police state that hangs people,” he said.
The Kamloops-Thompson School District was alerted to a post that DeFouw put up on social media and has since spoken with the parent.
Assistant Supt. Bill Hamblett says the school district is investigating.
“It is an oversimplification of those very complex ideas, which we need to revisit with those students,” Hamblett said.
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The B.C. curriculum has gone through a recent overhaul and is more focused on group-based learning and critical thinking. But Fleming says in this case, the teacher used material that does not fit in any curriculum.
“The good outcome here is the teacher will go back in the class and teach that lesson plan over again with better material,” Fleming said.
A copy of the worksheet below provided by Matt DeFouw: