.8 Extraneous Subjects

Right now it is virtually impossible to change the curriculum because the are too any variables to be considered and too many factors dependent on one another. Thus, this problem leads to a curriculum imbalance. This curriculum imbalance winds up emasculating the arts because in the name of focusing on the basics and getting back to the basics the arts get left out of the curriculum. We know that
if you want people to perform at the highest levels you need the balance between the arts and the sciences. The problem is that the arts are very hard to turn into standardized tests and we are really in a moment in history where we love standardized tests. It is hard to specify homework in the arts and it is hard to specify tests in the arts and so the arts are considered frills which is very unfortunate.
We have permanence in paralysis in the curriculum. Take for example, the fact that we have no room for vital new subjects. Let's take a look at some of these subjects. If you asked the American public, as a public, to vote on the environment, people would vote in favor of the environment. There is no question about that and people would vote to have the environment taught about in school. But right now there is no place to teach it. It gets added on a little bit here and sometimes to a history or geography course or to a science course but there is no place that we predictably teach about the environment. There is no place where we predictably teach about a world perspective. Most Americans know virtually nothing about Indonesia. The thing that Americans know about Indonesia more
than anything else is that someone from Indonesia tried to give money to a presidential campaign. But do Americans know that Indonesia is the fourth largest nation in the world in population? Or that it is the most populous Moslem nation in the world? Most people don't even know that Indonesia is Moslem. Should we know anything about Indonesia? Well since they are studying us enough
to know that it is to their benefit to subsidize our political campaigns, it is probably a good idea to know a little about them. I think that we need to know about the world we live in and right now we are not. Back to the curriculum imbalance, we teach very little about health and nutrition. That can kill you, literally. We need people to now about the dangers of too much sugar and fat and salt and to say nothing about the dangers of smoking and the value of exercise. There is no place in the curriculum for this. Health education is kind of an add on to a throw out the ball curriculum in P.E.. That is the wrong place as far as I am concerned to have something as important as the vitality of our life. It is not just that you want to live longer, it is that you want to live better. We have been talking about the fact that geography is a national goal and we still don't teach it. Do you see what I mean that it is hard to get new subjects into the curriculum?

	Why is it virtually impossible to change the curriculum today?	Answer Here
	Mr. Parker is a high-school social studies teacher. Because his students do not currently have the benefit of such a course, he would prefer that there be a course added to his school system's high school curriculum that focuses on the geography of each region in the world and includes the economical and social aspects of most of these places. Why would this new course be beneficial to him as well as to his students?	Answer Here