Thursday, May 6, 2010

curriculum

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

2 comments:

  1. Disagreement with your definition of 'curriculum'.

    Curriculum 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

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  2. 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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