Curriculum, curricula. "the subjects comprising a course of study in a school or college, originating from the Latin, curricle." (online Dictionary).  To me, that seems a very vague and weak definition of curriculum. Curriculum in that definition could simply be answered by, "we teach science, social studies, english and math." Really?? I doubt that would suffice an administrator, parent, school board member, or visiting accreditation team.  Curriculum to most teachers is the heart of what they do each day as they enter the classroom. Some have more power than others to control it, and some are very dictated and scripted, as if teachers are just monkeys following a set of preset rules. I realize there needs to be some structure and pre-planning with a scope of how learning can gradually be developed, but does it have to be following a script??

In my first years of teaching, the State of Maine was just beginning the process of developing the Maine  Learning Results. Like all good ideas, it ended up a bit different (very!) than those initial groups on which I worked had envisioned. The idea was that Maine was noticing that more and more of its students were moving about the state and so were often repeating the same instruction or being expected to jump ahead in their learning from one end of the state to the other. It was a way to help balance the instruction and give all teachers a general focus for 'what do I teach in fourth grade?'  Unfortunately, it did not quite end up that way as we all know. I did work with some very innovative and forward-thinking folks in those days as we worked with the state representatives from the Dept. of Ed. on how to word the expectations for a first-grader, second-grader, and so forth. It seemed like good work at the time and as a new teacher in special education, it gave me a better scope of what was expected of my students by certain grades. It was more of a benchmarking system than a curriculum- for me at least.  I suppose this is what eventually led to NCLB (along with many other initiatives!) to state that all students should have the basic skills to learn to read by grade 3. We knew by research then what was absolutely needed for that to happen. And what representative or senator would not want that for all students in all the states? But in actuality, as often happens, our schools were not equally equipped to deliver that instruction, and our students needed more time in most cases.

Now we are being given the Common Core. I have worked on all levels - as a special ed teacher, as a classroom teacher at the middle and high school levels, and as a coach to other teachers, - on curriculum and on how to best serve the students in front of us within the guidelines we are given- at the local, state and national levels. I do not believe that the Common Core is a national curriculum! It is an attempt to do at the national level what I believe Maine was attempting to do in the early days of the MLR's - making it a more even or equal playing field for the children of today as they move now from state to state and not just town to town. Will it work? I don't know. I do like the more open writing of the core, and how well it builds from one level to the next. However, it stills keeps the grade levels and those benchmark type standards. Maybe we need those to guide our work, but I find it often just ranks our students against one another instead. If we truly appreciate all learning, how do I as a teacher rank a group of students who redesign their school to allow more natural light in, over a student that loves to skateboard, designs the ideal skateboard park with the help of math teachers and architects, searches for the safest, best place to build this in his community, and then presents his work to the city council? I don't want to give just an A to both of those, and if asked they both would, but I would rather speak to the skills those students had to use to get to their end result. Those are the types of items employers will want to know, not whether you got an A on that great project.  

So, I agree with Dr. Heidi Jacobs, what year are we preparing our students for? But then the scary questions begin...but if when I was in elementary school, computers were not even being conceived as something every family could once own, let alone hold in their hand, how can I possibly envision what the world will be like in 2026, let alone know what to do to prepare the students in front of me for that year?!