Hi Sheila,
I have been half following this thread since I do not teach in the U.S.
and at the moment am a substitute here in Canada. But what you wrote the
other week caught my eye and I thought I'd like to comment.
You wrote that advocates for a National Curriculum hope it will help
kids, who move and change schools, across states, etc. find themselves
working on approx. the same material.
Now, I've missed a little of this discussion, so maybe I'm way off here,
but I do take it that a National Curriculum only covers what should be
taught in each grade - not when it should be taught in that grade? If
so, having a National Curriculum will not guarantee that a child who
moves does not miss the material.
For example, if you are doing a unit in November, and a child comes to
your class in January, maybe that unit is the one the child's teacher
was waiting until the Spring to do, etc.
If the Curriculum is going to be so regimented that it dictates exactly
when a teacher should teach a unit I could see one running into major
resource problems. I don't know how things work where everyone here
(conference) teaches but in my board we have science kits, etc. that go
out when you are doing certain studies.
There are a number of these per unit but if every grade four (for
example) were doing the same unit at the same time there would be a
problem. Of course, I guess, each school could have their own kit but
that would be very expensive - we try and pool our resources here - in
most cases.
Even if we think of English and Math units being dictated at certain
times can you imagine how detrimental that could be in a classroom. For
example, the NC could dictate that you teach multiplication (or
whatever) in March, however, your class happens to be rather quick with
that concept and don't need the amount of time dictated for teaching. Do
you hold them back because the NC says not to move on?
I don't know how clearly I've put things but hope you and everyone else
can understand what I've been trying to say.
So what do _you_ think?
Ruth
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 þ QMPro 1.53 þ Knowledge without wisdom is like a song without a singer.
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