Chapter Summary

	Teachers, Schools, and Society by Sadker & Sadker
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Chapter 7: What Students Are Taught in School

Chapter Summary

There are various forms of curricula in schools. One, the explicit curriculum, includes the courses offered, syllabi describing courses, tests given, materials used, and teachers' statements of what they want students to learn. The implicit, or hidden, curriculum, emerges incidentally from the interaction between the students and the physical, social, and interpersonal environments of the school. The extracurriculum, or cocurriculum, includes student activities, such as sports, clubs, student government, and school newspaper.
Extracurriculars have become fixed in the culture of American schooling, with 80 percent of all students participating in such activities as athletics, musical groups, and academic clubs. Proponents of the extracurriculum argue that it encourages student self-esteem and civic participation, improves race relations, and raises children's aspirations as well as their SAT scores. Many remain skeptical, however, seeing extracurricular activities as having very little, if any, effect on achievement and personal development.
Controversies over the extracurriculum usually arise from conflict with the academic side of school. Some states have instituted "no pass, no play" rules, excluding low-achieving students from participating in varsity sports. Since these rules tend to affect minority students disproportionately, many people see these rules as making the extracurriculum exclusive and discriminatory. Others criticize the degree to which schools pour resources into athletics, when that support could be going toward academics.
In addition to planned lessons, schools teach a hidden or implicit curriculum, subtle messages that students receive from teachers' and other students' behaviors.
School subjects are taught in the formal or explicit curriculum, which is currently undergoing scrutiny and revision. National standards have already been developed for math, science, geography, and other subject areas. The scope of these changes, as well as tension points, are reviewed in this chapter.
Curricula have two functions. One function is to preserve and transmit to students the culture and traditions of the past. The other is to anticipate the knowledge, skills, and abilities that today's students will need in order to function effectively in tomorrow's society. Sometimes these two functions of preserving and anticipating clash.
A significant curricular trend is the development of critical thinking skills. Educators believe that thinking must be taught directly and must be infused with the scope of subject matter content.
The seventeenth century witnessed the "two Rs" curriculum, emphasizing reading and religion. The only secondary schooling available was Latin grammar school, which was open only to white male students who could afford the cost.
The eighteenth-century curriculum shifted toward the secular. The English grammar school and the academy became options for secondary schooling. White girls were allowed to attend the academy.
As a result of nationalism, democratization, and industrial development, the curriculum in the nineteenth century moved toward universal literacy, vocational competence, and preparation for citizenship. Elementary school studies included writing, arithmetic, spelling, geography, and good behavior. The academy was the dominant form of nineteenth-century secondary schooling until the last quarter of the century, when the academy gave way to tax-supported public high schools.
In the first half of the twentieth century, the curriculum was influenced by John Dewey and the progressive movement. Creative expression, social skills, and a more integrated study of subject areas were stressed. The junior high emerged during the 1920s. The mission of high schools was to meet the needs of all the students, not only the college-bound. By 1918, vocational course work had become an important part of the curriculum.
In 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, and weak American schools were viewed as the reason for the country's defeat in the race for space. As a result, the curriculum became discipline-oriented, particularly in math and science.
The curriculum in the late 1960s and the 1970s focused on social issues, with particular emphasis on the needs and contributions of women and minorities. Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (later renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Act), required developing an individualized education program for each special needs child. Other issues emphasized in the curriculum were peace studies, ecology, and the secular presentation of topics relating to death.
Popular in the 1970s, open classrooms were divided into flexible areas called interest, or learning, centers. Children were encouraged to explore the classroom and choose activities they wished to pursue.
The curriculum of the 1980s was marked by the back-to-basics movement. Triggered by the problem of declining test scores, this movement stressed achievement in the traditional subject-matter areas. Today there is an ongoing debate over emphasizing a curricular core versus presenting the student with a variety of electives. Most reform reports urge a return to a core curriculum. There are also current movements toward an integrated or a connected curriculum and toward national standards as a way of unifying and improving schools (described in the next chapter).

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