Blog 9: Curriculum as Literacy

In my home town of Weyburn we had a pretty mixed group of students within our school and I felt like biases were set but they were usually by the media or others around town and not so much in school. Through out we would learn about other cultures and we even touched on gender and sexuality but it was not as heavy as other things such as reading about Shakespeare. The topic we talked about most throughout however, was Indigenous groups. These conversations and lesson plans started in about grade 9 as far as I can remember and throughout my 10-12 years it was more heavily applied especially in my grade 12 year. Not all of it was good however, as in my English we read a book about a family who was poor and they were all alcoholics and if they weren’t at the started developed to be one in the end. For the most part however, I was taught to see the world as only a white world that no other race was really important or was worth talking about. We learned about the Europeans point of view and any other view did not matter. I also noticed that we also never talked about those who had a learning disability or physical disability even though we had students who did in our school. However, even though they were in our school we never saw them. They were always in a separate room and never got to interact with other students unless that student signed up to go to the room to help them. I feel this gave me the sense of that people with disabilities were not as important as others and could not interact with others at anytime so I never got to develop a good bias towards them it was more of a I don’t know anything about it and felt weird when around them or talking about it. Although it was not a bias against race it is still a bias I think was shown. After being done with my high school Education and came to University I feel as if my eyes have been opened to a lot more. We now talk about other races and sexuality. We even talk about those with disabilities as well. Most classes in University touch on everything that can be found to be important such as including everyone into the classroom and our lives.

These conversations and lesson plans started in about grade 9 as far as I can remember and throughout my 10-12 years it was more heavily applied especially in my grade 12 year. Not all of it was good however, as in my English we read a book about a family who was poor and they were all alcoholics and if they weren’t at the started developed to be one in the end. For the most part however, I was taught to see the world as only a white world that no other race was really important or was worth talking about. We learned about the Europeans point of view and any other view did not matter. I also noticed that we also never talked about those who had a learning disability or physical disability even though we had students who did in our school. However, even though they were in our school we never saw them. They were always in a separate room and never got to interact with other students unless that student signed up to go to the room to help them. I feel this gave me the sense of that people with disabilities were not as important as others and could not interact with others at anytime so I never got to develop a good bias towards them it was more of a I don’t know anything about it and felt weird when around them or talking about it. Although it was not a bias against race it is still a bias I think was shown. After being done with my high school Education and came to University I feel as if my eyes have been opened to a lot more. We now talk about other races and sexuality. We even talk about those with disabilities as well. Most classes in University touch on everything that can be found to be important such as including everyone into the classroom and our lives.

As for ‘single stories’ I have seen are on the ways of Europeans and the culture that follows with them. Everything was also told to be taught by an old white guy who will never teach it but thinks it should be taught. We never really learned about others and if we did it was brief but it was the stereotypical versions of people or is was built around a death such as the book “April Raintree” was about the stereotypical drunk Indigenous people that are depicted and even with the book “To Kill a Mocking Bird” which was about a black man who was killed and the book was also filled with racism we never once looked at a book that showed the good part of others, we only ever looked at the good part of white people. We also did the book “Of Mice and Men” which was about two guys and one had a intellectual disability and in the end he was killed because he was not fit for life and that’s how it was depicted they made it seem as if anyone with a disability should not live. All of the books or articles or short stories we read were never one shining a good light on any other person other then white straight males and females and if it wasn’t it was shining a ad light on others. I never did truly understand why we could not focus on the good things of other rather then looking at all the bad things and stereotypes that came along with them.