In the past, I’ve used this column to poke fun at our Albertan neighbours. It’s all done in love, and always directed at policy and not people. After all, BC and Alberta have a lot of things in common. I mean, I’m pretty sure Alberta PM Alison Redford is Christy Clark’s mom.
I’ve never drank the Kool-Aid on oil sands hate, believing it’s something we all have to have a more civil discussion about. Maybe there’s good in the oil sands, maybe not. But we need to approach the topic as rational adults, with at least a basic understanding of both sides.
Unfortunately, the Alberta government does not seem to agree with me on that.
This week the Edmonton Public School Board decided that oil sands giants Suncor, Syncrude, and Cenovus were suitable groups to invite for consultation on curriculum for students from kindergarten to grade 3.
I’d like to know who thought that was a good idea. The angle that’s being sold is getting kids interested in science and development. I might buy that if I saw a few environmental science firms on the invite list.
But in Alberta there’s only one path to scientific progress and that’s working for oil and gas. Give me a break. It’s the same story the coal companies sold kids in the US after helping write curriculum down there, providing what Alberta NDP education critic Deron Bilous called “a completely one-sided view speaking only of the benefits.”
Let’s face it: kids in kindergarten and grade 3 will believe pretty much anything you tell them. They’re already getting bombarded with advertising on TV, billboards, and mobile apps.
Shouldn’t the classroom be a place where they can get away from all that?
As cliche as it is to say, we should let kids be kids; there’s nowhere that’s truer than at school. I don’t envision a dystopian future where children are force-fed pro-“job sands” propaganda at school.
But I do wonder if oil and gas can’t keep their dirty bitumen fingers off my future kids’ education?