Education and the curriculum 

People naturally thirst for knowledge, wanting to know how things exist and why they happen. Knowledge and education have evolved with civilization. It may be accurate to say that this is a contributing factor to the advancement of society. For generations, education has remained divided between the deprived masses and select elite. Most of the disadvantaged went through an apprenticeship to acquire a certain skill. On the other hand, the elite had access to institutions or groups that taught higher order thinking skills and knowledge.

In the early twentieth century, a realization emerged; a change was needed from the 1800’s style of the one room schoolhouse education of basic reading, “riting”, and “rithmetic” (3 r’s), to a planned teaching system. This educational plan, or curriculum, emphasized minimum standards for a structured and test oriented learning environment. As a result, a student is considered an empty vessel and fed specific information supplied from a textbook.  Followed by, quizzes and tests continually given to evaluate the level of knowledge. For example, some schoolchildren can recall dates of America’s wars, or the Louisiana Purchase . However, ask the meaning of American  manifest destiny and most will be lost. Many agree the traditional curriculum promotes children to memorize basic facts for tests and their retention rate is low or non-existent. Despite this, the structured curriculum was adequate for many years. 

After the sixties, many studies were done to evaluate human learning processes and student development. From these studies came suggestions to change the accepted curriculum and facilitate novel learning techniques. At the same time, society was starting to realize the value of a superior education, and more high school graduates enrolled in colleges. A few of the prestigious colleges developed new curriculums to meet the demands of a changing environment and a graduate from an innovative college was highly respected. The majority of high school graduates found themselves poorly trained and ill prepared for college. Consequently, there have been changes over the years; by many schools, although most are small and minor adjustments.

In the mid 80’s companies, wanted skilled and adaptable workers and technology was growing rapidly. This created much controversy on the quality of education in America and confidence in school training. Many professionals agree that the American educational curriculum is inferior to the majority of European countries.

The early 90’s experienced a tremendous change in innovation. Technology, globalization, and new discoveries of our knowledge of the world have changed societies perception of what is needed in today’s students. Traditional education styles have not evolved enough to keep pace with a dynamic environment.

As a result, the core education (grades K-12) of individuals is not adequate for the unique global and technological environment and change is needed. Reform in education requires societies’ commitment to learning by creating a diverse and adaptable curriculum, blending traditional and new learning styles.