Politics of Curriculum

Should be called Politics IN Curriculum.

I once read/heard somewhere that the reason schools were created was to indoctrinate children; so that the students would all think/reason alike, and understand/accept the current views of the government. This was the “hidden curriculum/hidden agenda” of schools.

With the industrial revolution, and the need for more skilled labor, I see the bottom-up structure of moving from the base to the superstructure.

I think that yes, the school system has evolved to ideology, However, I have a real problem with McLaren’s quote. “Dominant culture was described as those "social practices and representations that affirm the central values, interests, and concerns of the social class in control of the material and symbolic wealth of society" (McLaren, 1989, p. 172).” I think the government, of the individual state or the central government, has always had and wanted complete control of the content. Even now I heard Pres. Obama put out a statement that teachers are only allowed to teach curriculum from a specifically sanctioned list, and although we can “supplement” our curriculum with unsanctioned material, we still have to teach what’s on the list. True or not, there is enough truth in that statement to make us have to deal with it as teachers. However, I don’t see the government as a social class. At least, it’s not supposed to be.

An yet, I suppose that if you look at the government in terms of their salaries and power, they certainly are the “social class in control of the material and symbolic wealth of society.” I don’t know how symbolic that wealth is – it’s more concrete!

I highly agree that the students are resistant to anything you want to teach them, and that teachers are control freaks in some respects or we wouldn’t be teachers, so there is a bit of resistance there as well. However, there is less resistance by teachers because they either believe in what they are teaching or they need the job. So they will reluctantly teach the curriculum in the way proposed.

Elaboration of intervention strategies – certainly this article seems to follow fairly accurately the evolution of schools. RTI is the latest buzzword that everyone has bought into.

There are still days that I feel I am indoctrinating the children; teaching good citizenship, evangelizing for the Church so the students feel a sense of stewardship, having to teach internet safety to 3rd through 8th graders, having to teach keyboarding to Kindergarten and 1st graders so they don’t create their own version that they have to “unlearn” later – who says their own ways of keyboarding aren’t better?

I think politics has and always will be intertwined with education because we are teaching those easily swayed and influenced. Indoctrinating those with open minds and willing hearts. I know race, class, gender, social structure, family, society and government all play deeply influencing roles in education today. It is incredibly complex and interwoven and plays out daily in each classroom across the country.