Note to Self:
You made the mistake yesterday of referring to the textbook as curriculum. Curriculum is a journey, a marathon, a set of ideas to think well about life. A textbook is a bureaucrat-imposed set of dogma, a secular catechism of sorts. It's not curriculum. Call it a textbook. Or better yet, call it McLearning - cheap and flashy, but fake and destructive.
Sincerely:
John
Disagreement with your definition of 'curriculum'.
ReplyDeleteCurriculum comes from the same root word as 'circus' -- as in Circus Maximus, the big old race-track in Rome. A circus is so called because, though you are racing, you are going in a circle.
You might win the race; but you didn't get anywhere. And that ain't much of a journey, is it?
It's no wonder that it's such a schooly word.
As for 'textbook', yeah: you nailed that one.
Shelly
Thanks for the clarification. I've heard two accounts on the origins of "curriculum." I think we've also borrowed the idea of "bread and circus" from them as well - which is why behaviorism is the dominant approach to our current educational system.
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