Implementing Treaty Education.

Treaty Education is the newest buzzword of Saskatchewan's educational system, and, unfortunately, not enough people are taking it seriously.  As pre-service teachers, we are kind of thrown to the wolves, so to speak.  We are expected to incorporate meaningful treaty education into every lesson plan, yet we are supplied with minimal resources.  All I have ever gotten for resources is the booklet from The Office of the Treaty Commissioner – and, to be completely honest, it isn’t very valuable.  The contents are a nebulous web of important topics, however there is no way to hash these topics into subject areas.  

Seemingly, even though Treaty Education is governmentally mandated, the Treaty outcomes and the curriculum outcomes are like oil and vinegar – they work together in the sense that they make a good salad dressing to pour onto a student’s learning/life experience, but (as it stands now) no matter how hard one tries to stir them, they do not mix.  I could have one of my routines being a quick “Did’ja kno!”  fact about treaty’s up on the board, and it could count that I have integrated treaties into my lesson, but is that beneficial to anyone?  Absolutely not.  Students will not remember it, as it has no meaningful impact, and the teacher will get an unwarranted sense of self-satisfaction.  

If students are coming into our classroom with absolutely zero pre-conceived knowledge of the treaties, weaving in and integrating Treaty Education into our lessons is going to be utterly useless.  This is why I believe a compulsory Treaty Education class in, let’s say, grade 9 would be extremely beneficial.  This class would give students the foundational knowledge that other teachers can then build upon in their own classrooms.  The argument about teachers neglecting to teach treaties in their classroom because “they have all had a class on it already, so what is the point” begins to arise when the thought of a treaty based class comes up.  Personally, I don’t think this argument holds much substance – it is still a mandated part of the education profession, so teaching it is not only still necessary, but expected.  

For my ECS 410 class, we had a guest by the name of Tim Caleval come in from the Ministry of Education, and right at the end of his presentation, he touched upon the Maori people of New Zealand and how the Government of New Zealand worked hard to raise the graduation rates of these Maori people and changed the educational system to benefit them.  I see a great deal of parallels between Saskatchewan and New Zealand – the only difference is the governmental apathy of our province.  

If we work together -- get the resources, get the plans in place, and all have a mutual understanding of Treaty Education -- we can implement a meaningful way of learning with the treaties.