DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

       People blame the teachers and the school administrators for students failing and for what is being taught in the school but is it really their fault? The teachers have to follow a curriculum that is already put in place by people who assume that they know what children need to know. The curriculum is a guideline for what children need to know at a certain point in the year, at a certain age, and at a certain level, but can people who are not in the classroom with students know this for sure? In my opinion, no they can't. Regardless of what many people believe, the curriculum that is set by these people has to be taught and if not, the teacher is not doing their job.  

       Chapters 1 and 2 of Herbert Kliebard's book The Struggle for the American Curriculum talk about the origin of the American curriculum and how it effects schools today. Kliebard explains how the curriculum was first designed after the European lifestyle, but was that really how the curriculum was supposed to remain? We all know that the curriculum is designed in favor of White people. We can clearly see as people of color who attended public schools that Europeans are glorified and people of color are belittled. Even after the many accomplishments from people of color, we are excluded primarily from what students should learn in school. We get taught the minimum, for example, we know that Dr. Martin Luther King was a man who fought for our civil rights and we know that Rosa Parks was the woman who refused to give her seat up for a white person on the bus, but thats it. 

       There were four groups that were interested in education. The first was the Humanists, lead by Charles Eliot and William Harris, who believed in Western European values and the 5 windows of the soul: grammar, literature, math, geography and history, and art. The second group was the Developmentalists, lead by Stanley Hall, who believed the curriculum should be based on the natural development of the child. The third group was the people who believed in social efficiency, and that schools should be operated like factories, basically educating according to what the child is interested in, lead by David Snedden and Ross Finney. This is like vocational school where you learn a trade. The state exams came from this group of people. The fourth group was the Social Melorists, lead by Lester Frank Ward, that said schools should teach social change and social justice and that schools could save the world. The only group that I can see that had all people in mind was the Social Melorists. Education can change the world if it is taught the right way. If we are uplifted and taught properly about ourselves the world will be a better place.

       The curriculum in the public schools doesn't make any sense. I didn't think about it until I began taking education classes and going to schools as a future teacher. The first time I realized that this curriculum is not for us is when I went to a 3rd grade class to teach a social studies lesson about the Civil War. I was told that they do not learn about America until 4th grade. That blows my mind because I can't fathom how anybody can learn about somebody else before they learn about themselves. We live in America so we should learn about who we are, where we come from and how this country came to be what it is before we learn about other countries. Not only do we learn about others first, but when we learn about America we aren't taught everything truthfully. Information is eliminated or fabricated but what good does that do for anybody?

       For my action research I am creating a culturally responsive curriculum for students of color. I feel that it is necessary for our children to be included and to feel wanted. If students' cultures, likes, dislikes, and personalities were considered when the curriculum was created, school will be a better place. Students will feel wanted, appreciated, nurtured, and important. The curriculum is now and has always been formed to cater to the Europeans. That was good (I guess) when they were the majority in this country but the roles have changed. Immigration, migration and miscegenation have now turned the "minority" into the majority so why are the schools where the our kids attend so Eurocentric? 

       

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.