As we build our curriculums
we must
start seeing them
as foundations
not ceilings.
They must be
the start
and not
the end.
Our curriculums
must be mechanisms
for launching
our students
into the unknown,
providing opportunities
for exploration and discovery,
for expanding possibility,
for all of us.
If our curriculums
don’t,
if they are only built
around the known,
what’s already
been done,
our students
won’t only be
disengaged,
they’ll
be underprepared
for their future.
If as educators,
we are measuring
our students
by asking questions
or posing problems that
have fixed solutions
that we know the answers to
we are simply
teaching history.
And although
understanding history
is certainly worthwhile,
critical even,
we shouldn’t all be
history teachers
all of the time.
Our students need
to explore the future
and nobody knows
what the future holds.
But that is where our
students will live.
They need to be
explorers,
innovators,
and
problem solvers.
Well designed
curriculum
should create space
for the unknown
as well as the known.
If curriculum
is not opening
the doors to possibility,
then it’s essentially
shutting the door
on our students
future.
Trevor (@trevorabryan)