SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A national organization has given the NWT a failing grade on its history curriculum, but the NWT Department of Education thinks the group could stand to hit the books itself.

The Northwest Territories, along with the rest of the provinces and territories, was graded by the Dominion Institute on how it teaches Canadian history. The report card, published on the Institute's website, gives the NWT an F.

Sir John Franklin student Daniel Bissell holds up a report card from the Dominion Institute website, which gives the territory's history curriculum a failing grade. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

The Dominion Institute, co-founded by Ontario MP Michael Chong, is a charitable group whose purpose is to promote Canadian history throughout the country.

"The reason why the Northwest Territories and Alberta (with which the NWT shares much of its high school curriculum) finished with an F is that there isn't a mandatory course in Canadian history to graduate from high school in the Northwest Territories," said Marc Chalifoux, spokesperson for the institute.

"It's actually a social studies course that takes place in each year of high school. Really, they contain very, very little Canadian content, and particularly very little Canadian history content.

"Probably the course that had the most Canadian history content is the Grade 11 course called perspectives on nationalism but even then it's very, very weak in terms of talking about Canada's past."

The Dominion Institute calls for each province and territory to adopt two mandatory Canadian history courses. The only province that currently has this is Quebec, which consequently scored the highest in the national grading with a B+.

According to the NWT Department of Education, Culture and Employment, the institute didn't do enough research.

"No jurisdiction likes to see a national organization say that they get an F on their report card. I would question the basis upon which that mark is given. I think it is not as informed as it could be," said John Stewart, the department's social studies co-ordinator.

"The report card is based on Grades 9 to 12, and we do follow Alberta for grades 10 to 12. We, however, have an NWT-developed history of Canada course in Grade 9 which they make no mention of in their report card."

The NWT has a social studies program that Stewart considers to be just as effective, if not more so, at engaging students in Canadian history.

"And I guess these are two different ways of approaching some of the issues that are explored in either social studies or history classes," said Stewart.

"One is the discipline of history, and the other is through an inter-disciplinary approach, which really looks mostly at issues and draws in historical components in as much as they're related to the issue that is being explored."

Stewart said the new Grade 10 globalization course, which both Alberta and the NWT have implemented into their curriculum, is a good example of this.

"You can't understand globalization without doing some of the background, which might be imperialism or colonialism, or you might get into things like residential schools," said Stewart.

Peter Maguire, instructional co-ordinator for YK Education District No. 1, agrees with this direction.

"In today's world when things are changing so quickly, this focus on critical thinking is such more of a valuable skill than having just dates and facts about historical events," said Maguire.

"We want to teach students how to find information, not just teach them bits of information."

Daniel Bissell, going into Grade 12 this fall, said the social studies courses he's taken so far have dealt a great deal with Canada and its history.

"We've been doing a little bit of both (history and contemporary issues) but mostly history," said Bissell.

He also mentions the Northern studies course that focuses mainly on the history and cultures of the North. Stewart said he thinks this is another vital course that didn't make it onto the score sheet, adding that contemporary Northern issues reflect not only larger Canadian issues but larger historical issues.

"Whenever I'm working with Alberta (curriculum) development committees, we're saying, 'Guys, look North.' The best examples you'll ever find of the issues you're trying to explore are happening right now in the North," said Stewart.

"We're negotiating modern day treaties up here, we had a Berger Inquiry that set the basis for aboriginal (and) non-aboriginal relationships for the last 40 years."

Stewart maintains that the report card grading is much too generalized.

"I think it's unfortunate that the approach that has been taken is that of marking - I guess it's a good time of year, lots of people are paying attention to report cards - but I think it's unfortunate," said Stewart.

Calls to Mary Vane, chair of Yellowknife Catholic Schools, were not returned by press time.