Untitled Document

TOPIC: SCHOOL CURRICULUM TODAY

Lesson Element .1: AChanging the Curriculum@

We Have a Hidden National Curriculum, a Curriculum We Refuse to Acknowledge.

A hidden curriculum is pretty difficult to change.

If you don=t understand how we got the hidden curriculum in the first place, you will not be able to understand how to change it.

The Basic Problem: No One Person or Governing Body Is in Charge of the National Curriculum.

Whom do you speak to in order to change it?

The school board is only a part of the puzzle.

Example: Convince the local school board to make a change.
You=ve managed to convince them that statistics, rather than geometry will be of more value to the students in the future.
But can they change the course?

The problem is that even if the local school board wants to change the curriculum, it=s perceived that they can=t because the colleges won=t change their admission requirements.

The kids believe that the colleges won=t accept statistics as an alternative to geometry.

Likewise, many school boards recognize the need for change, but also fear that they will not help their students if they don=t match the entrance requirements for the colleges.

The reality: ODU and many other colleges including Stanford and Harvard are willing to accept alternative courses based upon local school board dictums.

The problem is that the kids and the school boards don=t realize this. And as for the universities, they don=t publicize this all that well. It=s easier to deal with prospective students who all come bearing the same credentials.

The bottom line: The local school board can change the curriculum, but they are still not in charge of it.

Lesson Element .2: AStandards@

The State Board of Education Can Make and Change the Requirements but this Doesn=t Necessarily Shift the National Curriculum.

They are sometime reluctant to tell the local school districts what to do with the curriculum.

Even if they do set standards of learning, the hidden national curriculum may skew the well intentioned concepts at the state and local level.

These intentions are affected by something called standardized tests.

Examples: The Iowa test, the Stanford 9, etc.

The students from Norfolk take the same tests that students in Iowa take.

The curriculum appears similar enough that it is assumed that the test has equal validity in both places.

If this is so, then it is further proof of a hidden national curriculum.

Advanced Placement Tests Are Another Example of Hidden National Curriculum.

These tests can give kids college credits for work completed in high school.

However, who made up the tests?

It wasn=t any government body, nor anyone elected to a position of authority.

It was a group of private people who are a self-perpetuating board called the College Entrance Examination Board. The CEEB is a bunch of mostly white males our in California, self-perpetuating the standards on the placement examinations.

The CEEB in Effect, Sets the National Curriculum by Devising the Advanced Placement Tests.

They aren=t evil, but nobody gave them the right to determine the national curriculum.

They just did it by default.

If the standards are in place, then the schools have to focus their curriculums to meet the advanced placement standards.
In fact, the right that nobody gave the CEEB the right to set standards is irrelevant.
It is just there and we have accepted it. They won by default.

The CEEB Isn=t Evil, but Rather on the Whole, Conservative.

If they are too radical, everybody would complain.

The conservatism makes change very difficult.

The CEEB=s best interest is to keep the hidden curriculum just the same until forced to acknowledge small shifts are needed.

Lesson Element .3: ATextbooks@

Textbooks Is the Third Item That Affects the Hidden National Curriculum.

Most textbooks are written for Texas and California based students.

The goal of the textbook publisher is to sell books. Thus, they write the textbooks for the middle of the market.

The publishers usually won=t take chances, but they do want the textbook to look new, so they perpetually revise the book without changing much of the current substance of the book.

New pictures, re-arranged paragraphs, etc... are the norm.

The balancing act is to have the book look new, but still be predictable.

Teachers unknowingly support this stratification.

Many teachers resist new books because it means they have to redo all their lesson plans.
The longer the teacher has taught, the larger the amount of lesson plans banked. This means that many long-term teachers are the most resistant to change.

The True Basis of the Hidden National Curriculum.

The national curriculum is based on standardized tests made by test publishers, advanced placement exams made by the CEEB, and textbooks who are published by textbook publishers who make their decisions based on potential profit.

Lesson Element .4: ANational Curriculum@

The Big Issue With a National Curriculum Is Trust.

Currently, we have a hidden national curriculum that nobody controls, and therefore, nobody can change.

Dr. Allen would prefer to have a national curriculum that was made by a process that he knew and understood, and even had an input into, rather than a hidden national curriculum.

One of the Impacts of the Current Curriculum Is Paralysis of Local Control.

We don=t want to admit that there is an unsanctioned national curriculum.

Want we want is a local curriculum.

Local control of schools is very important to Americans. We don=t want the government controlling our schools, and thus, we end up with no control.

This lack of control brings uncertain accountability. No one knows what they are responsible for teaching.

Likewise, no one knows who is responsible for deciding it, and nobody is going to take responsibility for changing it. The result is stagnation.

The bottom line result: you end up with an unsanctioned hidden curriculum.

In Order to Change this Deadlock, Someone Needs to Be in Charge of the National Curriculum.

The group that is charge should be one that can be trusted.

The group also needs to represented a balanced input of the concerns of the nation.

It shouldn=t consist solely of white males from California.
It should represent the concerns and social conditions of the country.

Changing the Curriculum Won=t Be Easy. Social Conditions Must Be Taken Into Account.

Example: When should schools act like parents?

Currently, when schools assume more parental like authority, many people challenge the school=s right to do so on the grounds of eroding family values.

The truth is that we have lots of kids coming to school who don=t have family backing behind them. They literally haven=t been taught family values.

So who should fill this vacuum? The School or another agency?

Dr. Allen believes that the school should assume this role as surrogate parent in the absence of a real parent.

Lesson Element .5: AChanging Social Conditions@

Multiculturalism Is Another Facet of the Changing Social Conditions.

As a general rule, we haven=t acknowledged the changing social conditions or figured out how to deal with it.

The status of women is an example of this. Although we are doing better with this issue than other countries, we still are not comfortable addressing the concerns.

Dichotomy of purpose: Schools are supposed to redefine norms in changing social conditions, but schools take their orders from a society that is timid in terms of change.

Timidity in the Face of a Need to Change Leads to Paralysis and Misunderstandings.

Teachers face a damned if I do, damned if I don=t type situation.

If they teach about certain kinds of things some people praise them while others complain.

There is no one to give the teachers a clear mandate and this results in a lack of confidence and tremendous timidity on the part of teachers.

Teachers end up fearing that they will get in trouble for teaching something on the edge of the envelope.

Example: Evolution, gender issues, or sex education.

Dr. Allen Advises Teachers to Check With Their Principals If They Are Uncertain About What to Teach.

However, the teacher should realize that most principals are going to opt for a conservative approach.

The principals will generally take the safer, middle ground on the issues.

If the issue is in a gray area, teaching it depends on the braveness or timidity of the individual teacher.

Remember: It is different to be bold about something of which you are uncertain, than to be bold about being subversive.

Teachers do not have the right to be subversive.

You can defend the fact that if society doesn=t give you clear instructions one way or the other, that you followed your conscience.

You can=t defend being subversive, but you can defend being bold. Just don=t confuse the two aspects.

If the local school board or your principal gives you a clear instruction, then you as a teacher have the responsibility to follow those instructions.

If you can=t live with that decision, teach somewhere else.

Lesson Element .6: AThe Big Five@

One Result of the Hidden National Agenda Is Fewer Local Alternatives.

Most local school boards tend to look at what other school boards are doing.

This is the result of having a hidden national curriculum.

The boards look at the college requirements and tend to mold their local requirements to match the colleges.

This ends up with what Dr. Allen calls the ABig Five@ of curriculum categories.

The Big Five Curriculum.

This curriculum shouldn=t be a surprise. It is the one that most of the people have experienced during their school years.

In order of importance from most to least important:

English
Social Studies
Math
Science
Language

In actuality, there is a solid core of the ABig Four@ and then Language which is less stressed.

Although language is usually a requirement for college admissions, it is the weakest of the curriculum because of the way Americans treat language.

We study it, we don=t use it.

No one expects fluency, we just study it for a few years and then forget it.

Although we recognize these components as the ABig Five,@ we still aren=t confident enough about them to prescribe than as part of a national curriculum.

Efforts At Establishing A National Curriculum.

President George Bush called a National Education Conference in Charlottesville, VA. One of their tasks was to develop recommendations for a national curriculum.

They also came up with a ABig Five@ and these are now stated as our national goals.

However, their Big Five is not the same Big Five as we have previously experienced.

Under pressure from the perennialists, social studies was split into two segments. The new national goals are:

English
History
Geography
Math
Science

Language fell out of our national goals.

Lesson Element .7: AHaving Standards@

Despite the Stated National Goals, Standards Aren=t Really There, And Attempts To Adopt Officially Accepted Standards Are Controversial.

Language was dropped from the Big Five of national goals.

Since 1989 we have experienced a wave of interest in the arts, yet that subject is not part of our national standards.

Likewise, although Geography was adopted as a National Goal, geography instruction or emphasis really hasn=t increased.

Some of the Stated Standards Are Controversial Because of the Context of the Standard.

Math standards are bitterly debated.

The conference recommended that no one be required to learn long division of compound fractions. The argument was that these are not needed because calculators have made needing this skill obsolete.

The conference also recommended that there shouldn=t be homogeneous groupings in math, and that kids of all abilities should be in the same classes all the way through the eighth grade.

There shouldn=t be any differentiation for smart kids, or gifted kids, or dumb kids, or at risk kids. Everybody should be together.

As a Society We Haven=t Accepted the Fact That There Should Be National Standards.

The end result is that everybody feels free to have their own opinion, and doesn=t see any professionalism or any social momentum towards a common standard.

Dr. Allen could live with the concept of calculator use vice learning long division. He could also live with the opposite concept. What he doesn=t like is the vacillations.

The status quo produces confusion, and this is why we need national standards that are predictable even if the standards aren=t necessarily to our personal liking.

Once we have accepted the concept that we need national standards, we can devise mechanisms to change them as necessary after careful deliberation.

Lesson Element .8: AExtraneous Subjects@

Because it Is So Difficult to Change the Current Curriculum, this Leads to Curriculum Imbalance.

We have emasculated the arts in the name of focusing on basics.

Likewise, foreign language got chopped from the national goals.

If you want people to perform at their highest levels, you need a balance between the arts and the sciences.

Part of the problem is that it is very difficult to express the arts in a standardized test format like you can with history.

It is also difficult to specify homework in the arts and standardized testing format, so this subject is often considered frills.

We Have A Permanence In Paralysis In the Curriculum.

We seem to have no room for vital new subjects.

These new subjects are varied but are of importance in our global setting.

Bits and pieces of these subjects are added to existing subjects, but they do not receive the attention that they deserve.

Examples:

Americans are concerned about the environment. Yet there is no room to teach it as a separate subject. It gets added in pieces in history, geography, or science courses, but there is no place that we predictably teach about the environment.
There is no place we teach about world perspective. Most Americans known virtually nothing about Indonesia. The Indonesians are studying us, but most Americans don=t even realize that Indonesia is a Moslem country, and in fact, the fourth largest Moslem country in the world.
We don=t teach Health and Nutrition effectively. The impact of this is literally a deadly one. Facts about this subject are spotty and often simply thrown in as a tag-along to Physical Education classes.

Even with an adopted goal such as geography, it is still difficult to overcome the paralysis of our curriculum to make room for it. Thus it shouldn=t be surprising to discover that introduction of new subjects into the curriculum is so difficult.

Lesson Element .9: AForeign Language@

There Are Two Different Components That Are Often Confused About Foreign Language Learning.

One is whether there should be a national curriculum for language.

The other is what that national curriculum should be.

The ideal balance is about half to two-thirds of the curriculum to be national.

Language learning should be introduced much earlier.

Example: If we all started learning Spanish in kindergarten, then we would all be fluent in Spanish by the time we got to high school.

We Are Not So Concerned With the Quality of Language Education, Only That it Exists.

We are currently preoccupied with the notion that curriculum must include language for college preparation.

However, we have a mistaken notion of quality, and we don=t get higher quality by simply making something a requirement.

Example: Trying to master a language in four years (ninth through twelfth grade), simply doesn=t work. But that is generally the way we try to approach languages.

We can=t achieve quality by testing. You must provide substantive instruction and allow the time that is required to master a subject. We should start teaching languages much earlier than we currently do.

As Educators, It Is Essential That We Form A National Curriculum.

We should all be in agreement in terms of what is being taught, and how it is being taught.

Such consistency would significantly reduce the problems of mobility and inequality.

We should also devise and set in place a predictable way to amend our new national curriculum. This would allow us to keep up to date with the latest changes in technology and research. This would eliminate the problem of obsolescence of curriculum.