TAKING ACTION
Putting in place a curriculum that respects the necessity of both specialized and holistic study isn't difficult, especially if the effort is directed to adolescents at the middle school level. The basic elements of our everyday approach to sense making are not only simple and obvious, they’re already embedded in language and thought, shaping our conversations, stories, myths, reports, poetry, novels, humor, plays, and other tools for modeling reality and communicating sense. Making those five elements explicit and formally adopting them as curriculum organizers not only solves every major problem with the traditional curriculum, it strengthens the academic disciplines by putting them in context and integrating them.
Of course, even minor changes in the curricular status quo are difficult. Those who understand the problems don’t make policy, and those who make policy don’t understand the problems. Educators are trained in particular disciplines, and often feel threatened by change, even a change that could make their jobs easier. Parents, school boards, newspaper editorialists and other opinion leaders, convinced that how it used to be is how it ought to continue to be, also sometimes oppose departures from traditional practice. Institutional inertia, legislative mandates, and onerous, time-consuming bureaucratic demands stand in the way.
And all, from students in the classroom to the top echelon of the US Department of Education, are subject to the machinations of powerful corporations profiting from the curricular status quo.
Putting in place a curriculum that respects the necessity of both specialized and holistic study isn't difficult, especially if the effort is directed to adolescents at the middle school level. The basic elements of our everyday approach to sense making are not only simple and obvious, they’re already embedded in language and thought, shaping our conversations, stories, myths, reports, poetry, novels, humor, plays, and other tools for modeling reality and communicating sense. Making those five elements explicit and formally adopting them as curriculum organizers not only solves every major problem with the traditional curriculum, it strengthens the academic disciplines by putting them in context and integrating them.
Of course, even minor changes in the curricular status quo are difficult. Those who understand the problems don’t make policy, and those who make policy don’t understand the problems. Educators are trained in particular disciplines, and often feel threatened by change, even a change that could make their jobs easier. Parents, school boards, newspaper editorialists and other opinion leaders, convinced that how it used to be is how it ought to continue to be, also sometimes oppose departures from traditional practice. Institutional inertia, legislative mandates, and onerous, time-consuming bureaucratic demands stand in the way.
And all, from students in the classroom to the top echelon of the US Department of Education, are subject to the machinations of powerful corporations profiting from the curricular status quo.