Immigrants Learn Canada. So Should Our Students

Commentary
By Michael Zwaagstra

Anyone who immigrates to Canada and wants to become a citizen must pass a citizenship test, which tests their knowledge of Canadian history, culture and institutions.

We should expect no less of Canadians who were born here. And schools play an important role in educating students about our country.

Unfortunately, Canadian history education often focuses on past discrimination such as the Chinese Head Tax and residential schools. While these are important things for students to learn, there’s much more to Canadian history.

For example, the carefully navigated compromises that led to Confederation in 1867, the brave acts of the Loyalists who resisted the American Revolution in the late 18th century, Canada’s outsized contributions during both world wars, and so on.

Many Canadian historians, including Jack Granatstein, lament the fact that social studies curriculum guides have largely moved away from telling the grand story of Canadian history and deemphasized the memorization of specific names, places and events.

While there’s obviously little benefit in having students memorize a set of disjointed facts, students should commit at least some things to memory to properly understand the history of our country because there’s a strong connection between background knowledge and reading comprehension.

Research shows that the more someone knows about a topic, the more easily they can understand an article or book written about it.

For example, someone who knows nothing about hockey will struggle to understand an article that includes phrases such as “killing a penalty,” “power play” and “pulling the goalie.”

In contrast, someone familiar with hockey will know what these and other hockey phrases mean, which makes it considerably easier to understand an article summarizing last night’s Leafs game. The same principle applies to articles or books about other topics such as history, science or politics.

Unfortunately, according to new results from the Programme for International Assessment (PISA), the gold standard for international student testing, from 2018 to 2025, the average reading scores of Canadian students dropped by 30 points. PISA equates 20 points with approximately one grade level, which means that Canadian students now read about one-and-a-half grade levels lower than they did in 2018.

Learning how to read well is about more than just decoding words on a page. While it’s important to get decoding right, it’s equally important to ensure students understand what they’re reading.

The broader the knowledge base students have, the more likely they are to understand the article or book put in front of them. One of the best ways to expand the knowledge base of students is to ensure they have a solid understanding of history, particularly Canadian history.

By learning about the grand narrative of our country and committing specific facts to memory, students are better prepared to read and understand more challenging content.

In addition, learning Canadian history enables students to think critically about important topics such as whether it’s appropriate to commemorate Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, for his nation-building contributions. Only people who have a basic understanding about the historical era in which Macdonald lived will be able to contribute intelligently to the debate over his legacy.

If we want high school graduates to be literate critical thinkers, we must ensure they receive a solid grounding in Canadian history. Anything less is a disservice to our students and our country.

Michael Zwaagstra is a public high school teacher and senior fellow of the Fraser Institute.