RE: Editorial: All levels of education must address Indigenous culture, Oct. 15-21, p. 13.
The University of Winnipeg and Lakehead University have introduced a mandatory Indigenous studies course; all students must take it in order to graduate. Last week, the Charlatan published an editorial arguing that Carleton should incorporate Indigenous studies into all relevant subjects. They said that education is a big part of reconciliation. I agree that Indigenous studies should be incorporated into already existing classes, but I believe they are best kept in elementary and high schools.
I am in a program where I am lucky enough to have room for plenty of electives, but a lot of students at Carleton aren’t. Carleton is one of Canada’s leading institutions in the study of engineering, architecture, and industrial design.
These programs are tough, and leave little room for electives. For example, students in Architectural Conservation and Sustainability Engineering take 22 credits over four years, and none of the credits can be free electives. Between “Finite Element Methods in Civil Engineering” and “Fluid Mechanics,” how are these students going to have room for an Indigenous studies course when they’re already taking five or more credits per year? Why should they pay an extra $500 and extend their degree to learn about something irrelevant to their field of study?
I’m not saying Indigenous history isn’t important, but wouldn’t it be a lot easier to include this topic into existing history classes? Our school system is designed to develop a foundational understanding of important topics in elementary and high school, and later apply those fundamentals to a specialized major in post-secondary.
Indigenous studies are certainly a foundational topic in understanding Canada and social issues, but it’s hard to put it into a specialized post-secondary major. Students in elementary and high school are learning about Canadian history anyway, and Indigenous history is often left out of the curriculum. This is where the problem must be solved, in a reform of the history curriculum in elementary and/or high schools.
As unfortunate as it is, Canada has an ugly side of its history that extends to discrimination beyond just Indigenous people. There has been prejudice against women, homosexuals, people of colour, Muslims, and other minorities. Arguably some, if not most, of these struggles still exist at different degrees today.
Recently, a Conservative Party MP made anti-gay statements, and a mural on Bank Street honouring murdered trans people of colour was defaced just this month. There are many more examples of the struggles minorities are facing not just in Canada’s past.
It’s a slippery slope to start judging which struggle is worse, or needs more awareness, but isn’t the history of all of Canada’s cultures worth learning? Why stop at just Indigenous people?
Canada doesn’t have a clean slate, and if we impose an Indigenous studies requirement, it leaves behind the struggles of other minorities. And these aren’t being taught in history classes either. Not once were the topics of Islamophobia or transphobia brought up in my high school history class. The study of all minority communities needs to be done in the Canadian elementary and post-secondary curriculum.
Coming from a European background, I do not fully understand the struggles that Indigenous people have faced and are facing today. And I do know that awareness of the problem is the first step in the road to reconciliation. However, making an Indigenous studies class mandatory for post-secondary students is just going to leave them frustrated and uneager to learn about the subject.
