CHAPTER XII THE PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE MAKING OF Making the curriculum intelligently requires that we begin with the immature equipment of purposes and means of control with which the child comes to school, allow for those which other institutions normally give him, and then find what subject matter will best guide him, from stage to stage of his development, in acquiring the purposes and means of control necessary for efficient participation in social life. In order to do this, we must find (1) what constitutes social efficiency, (2) what education the individual receives from institutions other than the school, (3) what is the nature of the immature experience to be guided by social patterns, and (4) what is the nature of each unit of subject matter available for guiding this experience. I The problem of making the curriculum may be simplified by separating it into the four problems noted above. The final test of the accuracy with which the curriculum has been made is found in the social efficiency of those who have been educated under its guidance, provided the methods of teaching are not at fault. The problem of making the curriculum for the school is that of selecting and organizing social patterns which, in supplementing the educational work of other institutions, point out the most economical steps in development from the meager and crude purposes and means of control which guide the activities of the child to those necessary for efficient participation in social life. As Professor Dewey says with regard to the subject matter which constitutes the curriculum: Abandon the notion of subject matter as something fixed and readymade in itself, outside the child's experience; cease thinking of the child's experience as also something hard and fast; see it as something fluent, embryonic, vital; and we realize that the child and the curriculum are simply two limits which define a single process. Just as two points define a straight line, so the present standpoint of the child and the facts and truths of studies define instruction. It is continuous reconstruction, moving from the child's present experience out into that represented by the organized bodies of truth that we call studies.1 The first step in solving the complex problem of making the curriculum is to separate it into the simpler problems which it includes. These simpler problems can then be considered one at a time. The most fundamental guide in choosing patterns is a knowledge of what is to be made. This is as true in the choosing of patterns to develop a human being as it is true in the choosing of patterns to make a dress, construct a machine, or build a house. Since the curriculum is selected as a guide in making individuals socially efficient, we must know (1) what constitutes social efficiency. Since the school supplements the educational work of other institutions and need not, therefore, undertake to do what may safely be left to them, we must know (2) what education the individual receives from other institutions. By subtracting from the social demands upon the individual those which are satisfied through training in other institutions, we can find those for the satisfaction of which the school is responsible. We must find next (3) what is the nature of the immature experience to which the social patterns are to be applied. This imma 1 Dewey, John, The Child and the Curriculum, p. 16. ture experience is the "material" with which the school must work in education. If the patterns do not fit it, they are useless. Before any pattern can be chosen intelligently, we must know (4) what is the nature of the pattern itself; for each pattern of subject matter is a special form of guidance from purposes and means already acquired to new ones based upon them. When these problems have been solved, we are ready to make an intelligent choice of patterns, or subject matter, for the school curriculum. Beginning with the immature equipment of purposes and means of control with which the child comes to school, and allowing for those which other institutions will normally give to him, we can find what subject matter will guide him most effectively, from stage to stage of his development, in acquiring the purposes and the means of control necessary for his efficient participation in social life. In finding the details of the curriculum, we must ever be guided by this question: What must the school prepare the individual to do in each of the kinds of activity normally required of him in the social life? It is clearly evident that, if the school is to prepare the pupil to be a carpenter, we must, in making the curriculum, find through trade analysis the details of the work which a carpenter is normally required to do, such as casing a window, fitting and hanging a door, and mitering a base-board. Likewise, we must find through analysis the details of all the kinds of activities for which the school is to prepare the pupil, including the various wider social activities, such as those required of a citizen. Then the curriculum should be so made that the purposes which the pupil needs to appreciate and the processes which he needs intelligently to control in order to do these things most efficiently are developed in his experience through the use of subject matter adapted to his experience and related to projects which he willingly undertakes as meaningful and worth while. A curriculum of this nature provides the pupil with activities that are significant and valuable from his own point of view, and at the same time prepares him for greater service from the point of view of society. The appropriate subject matter, as we have learned,1 not only is a guide to the true appreciation and the intelligent control of present practices, but leads also to the development of new purposes and of new means of control which promote social development. Much subject matter that is essential to social action cannot be used with advantage until the pupil has had years of development. In the meantime, he must be protected and cared for in so far as, because of immaturity, he lacks self-dependence. For years he must be fed, clothed, and sheltered; and he must also be safeguarded by laws and regulations in the making of which he has no voice. The final test of the accuracy with which the problem of the curriculum has been solved is found in the social efficiency of those educated under the guidance of the curriculum; for the test of any means is found in its effectiveness in securing the end for which it was devised. Whatever secures this end more fully and with greater economy of time and energy is an improvement. It is true that the curriculum is not the only means used in realizing the aim of education. Inefficiency of the graduates of a school or relatively slow development of its pupils may be due not to a faulty curriculum, but to 1 P. 334. faulty methods of teaching. If the school does not realize the purpose for which it was established and realize this purpose economically, the curriculum is, however, one of the factors which must be critically examined in locating the fault. Social demands may have been misunderstood; institutions other than the school may have been depended upon for guidance which they did not give; the subject matter may not have been used at the most opportune time in the developing experience of the pupil; the kinds of guidance normally given by various patterns, or units of subject matter, may have been misjudged. If there is some fault in the school, these are the matters with respect to which the curriculum should be critically examined in order to find whether the fault lies in it. The complexity of the problem makes improving the curriculum a slow process. In order to make genuine progress, the present curriculum, which is the outcome of much social experience, should be changed only when the value of the modification is clearly demonstrated in the light of the principles presented in this chapter. fatut! In solving the four simpler problems into which the complex problem of the curriculum has been divided, we must depend upon opinion in so far as science, on account of its youth, has not made investigations and arrived at accurate conclusions. Opinion is hypothesis not adequately tested; it is the forerunner of science, needing only to stand accurate and conclusive tests in order to be converted into scientific truth. In the absence of scientific conclusions, opinion is the best guide available. Step by step, in a slow but sure progress, science is, however, replacing opinion by its more reliable conclusions. To the extent that this is done in the field of education, |