Politics of Education Curriculums
Upon reading the article called, “Curriculum Policy and the Politics of What Should Be Learned in Schools” by Ben Levin, it became very clear to me that curriculum is a much more complicated subject than I thought. I understood how important a curriculum is to education, but I did not realize the complications that come along with it. I found it very interesting how he compared a school curriculum to government politics. I found that comparison extremely clever because now I can clearly see the similarities between the two. A teacher wants to please everyone, but there will always be one person who is not happy with how things are completed. They will believe that one topic is more important than the other, or that everything is being taught unprofessionally. This is the same as how a government leader may feel.
People can be very determined. Some may never be afraid to speak their mind and tell people how they feel. Teachers can receive criticism over what they are expected to teach in a classroom, which can make them feel very overwhelmed and stressed because there are many topics that need to be covered in a curriculum. However, as the article “The Saskatchewan Way: Professionally Led Curriculum Development” says, “the degree of success of curriculum reform and implementation depends upon the depth and genuineness of the involvement of teachers” (p. 2). The success of a child’s education lies in the hands of the teachers, so people must do their best to support them rather than criticize their teaching methods.
The world is a curious place. Many events, tragedies, and celebrations take place every day around the world. Our communities and teachers want our children to know who they are and where they came from. So naturally, they want these affairs to be placed in our education system. If a teacher were to do this, they may have to cut back on other subject materials such as math and science. This leaves a teacher in a tricky situation, which is when we should step in to help, not accuse. Communities need to work together to assist teachers in educating children about our world and everything that comes with it. There are as Levin described, so many hours in a day, and we should be using them to create positive change.
http://www.corwin.com/upm-data/16905_Chapter_1.pdf.
The Saskatchewan Way: Professional-Led Curriculum Development
