Prairie View

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Curriculum Choices

Below, you will find a guest post which I requested from Harry Shenk, who was assigned the topic at our Mid-Winter Teachers' gathering. Harry was the principal for the first three years I taught at Pilgrim High, and our staff had a lot of curriculum discussions during that time. Not a lot has changed since then--not because the questions were all answered and the issues all settled--maybe because no one kept the discussion alive. I am not alone in believing that this is a significant matter. My uncle, who is a retired bishop and high school principal, popped in at our staff meeting on Wednesday morning long enough to register his wish that the subject not get lost without further examination. (Uncle Paul still teaches a Bible class at the high school.) My father also has voiced concern.

From Harry:

This is a revision of notes prepared for a workshop session at the Mid-Winter Teachers’ Gathering, held at the Pilgrim Christian Grade School in Hutchinson, KS on Jan. 30, 2010. Bullets with nothing behind them were to be places for workshop participants’ input. They may be appropriate places for the reader to pause and reflect, a selah, if you will.

Introduction

There are many things that you need to do right if you’re going to run a high-quality, genuinely Christian school. There can be legitimate differences of perspective and opinions on any of these things. But certainly one of the “hot button” issues, with the potential to arouse parents’ passions and drive the administration to self-doubt and second-guessing, is the curriculum you choose.

It is not my aim to describe all the ins and outs, all the pros and cons of all the different curricula available to us today. For one thing, I doubt if we could critique them as fast as new ones are being produced! Furthermore, we would not be able to agree on which features are pros and which are cons. Rather, I want to talk about the function of curriculum in the school, and some of the basic principles that govern curriculum choice. And I want your input so that we can learn from each other’s experience.

While I will be sharing several specific examples, I won’t be getting very specific on many of the curricula, partly out of concern for fairness, and partly because I don’t have a lot of personal experience with many of them. When we went through the process of weighing our options for curriculum at our high school here, we were looking for something to use in an individualized learning center, so our scope was quite limited. Most of what I know–or think I know–about other curricula is second-handed.

One additional note: If you type ‘Christian curriculum choice’ into an internet search, the vast majority of what you will find is geared toward homeschoolers. So a few of the quotes that I’ll be sharing mention homeschooling specifically, but I think apply to both settings.

The Role of Curriculum in the School

Could we conceivably operate a school without curriculum? You obviously can’t have a reading class without books to read, but you can do it without a reader. You could teach math without a math book, or science without a science book, etc. So it is technically possible, but not very feasible, and certainly not very much fun! Why then do we have curriculum? What do we expect the curriculum to do for us?
• Helps us know what should be taught
• Treasury of factual knowledge, illustrations, exercises, etc.
• Ideally conveys love for and excitement about the subject area



Is the curriculum primarily for the student or for the teacher? The answer will depend on your educational approach. In an individualized setting, it is obviously for the student, as the student receives their teaching directly from the material, often with little direct involvement from the teacher. In a classroom instruction (conventional) setting, I believe it is primarily for the teacher, giving them guidance both on what to teach, and on how to teach it. We have heard, and I believe it is true, that simply “covering the material” falls short of the mark of truly teaching. The middle ground is using curriculum designed for the classroom with study guides to make it work individualized. There, the study guide largely fills the role of the teacher.

So there is a continuum from ‘curriculum as teacher’s aid’ to ‘curriculum as primary student input,’ and where you fall on that continuum determines how wary you need to be about false ideas cropping up in the curriculum. In our conventional classes at the high school, we used largely secular curricula, which we would have far more reservations about in a strictly individualized setting. We did, however, use Saxon Math and English 2600/3200 individualized, with no ill effects that I am aware of.

Don’t expect curriculum to do what it cannot.

What are things we desire to see happening in our schools that we know curriculum cannot do?
• Children who are mighty in spirit
• Respect for authority and appreciation for community
• Love of learning and love of work




On his blog, Muna wa Wanjiru makes this outlandish claim: “There is one sure way that you can guide your children to a standard of living that will provide them with a strong moral background. This is achieved via a Christian home school curriculum program.”

I cannot be too hard on Mr. Wanjiru. For too many years, I bought into this error. In our homeschool we used CLE almost exclusively, and I was sure that that would ensure that we would have a good homeschool, and achieve the desired results in our children. Now, CLE is a good curriculum. It has its problems, but it is a good curriculum. But curriculum cannot produce life change, which is the end goal of education.

John Swartz, part of the CLE organization, has this to say: “Our goal is not first of all knowledge, but the fear of God. And that, of course, is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom.” I observe that there is no curriculum that will accomplish that purpose, although there are clearly some that will foster that purpose better than others.

“I teach some by what I say, more by what I do, but most by who I am.”

But while acknowledging the limitations of curriculum in achieving our most important objectives, we also acknowledge the important role that curriculum does play in the Christian school, and we want to choose it wisely.

The Process of Curriculum Choice

What are the various factors that bear on this decision, and how should they be weighted?

I’ll stick out my neck and propose that the first requirement, the sine qua non, of good curriculum for a Christian school is educational soundness. Values are taught at many times and in many places. This is the one place where our children learn to read, write, and count, learn American History, Algebra, the simple machines, Physics, German, reading music, writing research papers, etc., etc., etc. Curriculum that does not provide sound instruction is not worthy of our interest.

I hasten to affirm that the lowliest follower of Jesus, though they be ignorant and incompetent, is in an infinitely better position than the most knowledgeable, capable, highly-trained infidel. Fortunately, we do not have to choose between the two. Indeed, we dare not. The Kingdom of God demands that we settle for nothing less than highly devout and thoroughly equipped disciples, who love and serve God with their whole heart, soul, strength, and mind. (Luke 10:27)

The web site Home School Curriculum Advisor asks the question, “How much–if at all–do you want your faith to be part of your child’s home schooling?” At first blush, it seems like blasphemy even to raise the question. It could be a helpful question, though, to get started with the thinking process of choosing curriculum, which was its intent. For myself, I would answer the question thus: It is important to me that my faith be an integral part of my children’s education, but it is not needful that my faith be an integral part of every piece of curriculum used in my children’s education.

Saxon Math is in use in some of our schools for one reason only: it does a good job of teaching math. Is that a problem? I don’t think so. No subject area, however, including math, is value neutral. One Saxon story problem reports that there were this many rollickers and that many roisterers at the Mardi Gras, and asks the student to find the ratio of rollickers to roisterers. While I could wish the example had been different, I have a hard time imagining that our students’ view of unbridled, licentious revelry has been altered thereby.

Ed Gish: “The essence of learning is not in the curriculum, BUT the deception of learning may be in the curriculum.”

The potential deception for us in the conservative Anabaptist community may not be so much with purely secular curricula as with other Christian publishers who do not share our spiritual heritage and understandings of Scripture. When our grade school was starting, I told the fledgling board, “I don’t think we owe it to our Mennonite publishers to buy their curriculum, but we owe it to ourselves to give it very careful consideration.”

Potential content trouble areas:
• God & Country
• Child evangelism
• Fashion and immodesty
• Unconditional eternal security
• Just plain wrong:
• Washington divinely protected from Indian arrows and British bullets
• Salvador Allende (Chile) committed suicide–by shooting himself in the back with a machine gun 144 times.




Following the 9-11 attacks, patriotic fervor was rampant in our country. Flag display was being encouraged, and there were those in our high school who were eager to be part of it. I could not go along with it, encouraging them to think through all they were really saying by that act. Would it have been different if we’d have been using only Anabaptist curriculum? I wish I could be more sure.

Is it a given that if some Baptists come to the Mennonite Church through using Mennonite curriculum, then some Mennonites will go to the Baptist Church if we use Baptist curriculum? If not, what’s the difference?

They’re coming because they’re saying, “Hey, this is Biblical, and it’s not being taught in our church.” Can our children say this? Can our homeschooling families say it? If so, we have some major teaching deficits in our churches, no matter what curricula are being used in our schools.

If it’s not a given, is it a likelihood? If so, how shall we guard against it?

Every mile of road has two miles of ditches. We must guard against the errors of 1 Cor. 12:21 and 15-16.

1 Cor. 12: 15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

I don’t think we want to say, “Because they advocate political involvement, they can’t be real Christians.” But then neither should we say, “Our Biblical understanding of political non-involvement can’t be valid.”

Students will typically find things to react to. What do we want them to be reacting to, what we perceive as weak points of other churches, or what they perceive as weak points of our church? Let me give one example of each.

In an ACE math PACE, a story problem is given about Soul-winning Saturday. One team had won thus-and-so many souls, and the other only this many. How many more souls had the one team won than the other? Now while I believe we could learn a lot from the Baptists’ evangelistic zeal, it is quite all right with me if my students react to that example.

In a CLE Social Studies LightUnit on career choice, there were a list of professions which we shouldn’t really consider too carefully, because they require college, which we can’t really endorse. Now maybe for some of you, that says it just right. It leaves me more than a little wistful. And what leaves me even more wistful is the possibility that our students will not stop with reacting to that specific teaching, but will react against conservative Anabaptism as a whole.

I was asked once, “How much bad do you put up with before you call it a rotten apple and throw it away?” My answer to that question is colored by the fact that I grew up on sort-out produce. Before every store had their reduced shelves, it was either Grade A or dumpster. We would go to one big produce market every Saturday evening, and they would give us, for a little bit of nothing, the produce that wasn’t going to be saleable come Monday. Throwing away the bad and keeping the good was a way of life for us.

Sometimes, though, the time came to just chuck the whole box. When did we throw it away?
• More trouble than it’s worth
• subtle and pervasive, therefore hard to get it all, or to have good stuff when you’re done
• of limited value, even if it were good (like the bushel of crab apples)

The very question implies that there is a perfect apple out there somewhere. Is there? Neither I nor anyone I’ve talked to has found it. I take that back. I do remember one person who had found a curriculum that was perfect in every way. And he had it for sale.

Potential presentation trouble areas:
• Dry presentation
• Unclear or inadequate presentation




John Swartz: “Admittedly, our material is not as colorful as some. Like our lives as plain people, it is simple and solid.” Fortunately, we do not compete with the TV/computer games mentality [although that may be changing], but still.... “School is boring,” is dreadfully difficult to overcome once it’s taken root. The curriculum should convey enthusiasm for the subject. And just as doctrinal error is more grave toward the “curriculum as primary student input” end of the continuum, presentation problems are a more serious weakness in individualized curricula as well.

When you browse through an issue of Nature Friend magazine, it is clear that the creators of this magazine love nature, love the Creator of nature, and love helping others to love nature. When you examine a CLE science LightUnit (and in fairness, other science texts could apply as well) does that same passion come through?

It can work the other way, too. I didn’t keep many of my college texts. The Teaching of High School English is one that I still have. One reason I kept it is that it is an excellent text, engaging in style and full of practical insights. The other reason is that the text is basically the only thing of value I got out of the course. The instructor was an abysmal failure. And it wasn’t just me; there was unanimous discontent among the students. Given excellent curriculum to work with, she still managed to turn that course, the one course that most nearly embodied what I went to college for, into very nearly a complete and total waste of my time and money

A teacher must exude enthusiasm, verve, color, interest, and a love of life, of God, of the students, and of the subject matter. This will overcome nearly any deficiencies of presentation in curriculum. And no amount of sparkle and pizzazz in the curriculum will make up for this lack in the teacher.

Quoting from The Teaching of High School English: “No single teaching approach or style, however traditional, different, or bizarre it may seem to visitors, leads inevitably to good results or poor results. The teacher who is well informed, thinks and plans ahead, cares about students, and truly tries to help them learn, will probably succeed.”

As with teaching approach, so with curriculum. There is no single answer that is a perfect fit for every situation. There are some that will save the teacher a lot of work, and some that will create work for the teacher. Some of that additional work may be combating false ideas. Some may be breathing life and enthusiasm into the subject when the curriculum has not done a very good job of that.

Administrators must provide their teachers with the best tools they can to do their job. And teachers must take the tools they have, and do the best job they can in what they are called to do.

What specific curriculum problems have you faced in your schools and how have you worked through them?


2 Comments:

  • Harry--thanks for contributing this! I found it quite stimulating, even given that I don't expect to engage in curriculum selection for at least the next several years.

    By Anonymous EldestSon, at 2/06/2010  

  • Thanks for posting this from Harry. I also enjoyed the chance to connect and browse through your blog!
    Rosy-Harry's SIL

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2/08/2010  

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