Who Decides What's in the Curriculum

I thoroughly enjoyed a humbling experience in class this week. In our review of the history of the Silk Road trade routes, we also learned about the more recent Chinese Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976. First of all, I thought the revolution was over in 1949 when China became Communist and the Nationalists fled to Formosa. But what really shocked me was my total ignorance of what was happening in China in the 60's and 70's. They sent everyone back to the farms and burned all their books to rid the country of all intellectualism!!! Mao attempted to purify the country of all "reactionary" literature and practices by sending everyone back to agriculture.

So how do we as a society choose what we teach our children? I was surprised by my complete ignorance of this modern history, but I realize we can't teach everything to everyone. As a student teacher of Physics, I am wondering if all of these learners really need so much science. Some of them are really struggling. Maybe their strengths are in the arts. I love science, but writing is hard for me. I am unsure of the efficacy of recent state decisions to increase core high school graduation requirements. These requirements seem to disregard the great beauty inherent in each individual's uniqueness. One size fits all doesn't seem to fit.

Physics and Horses on My First Day of School

Returning to the world of public high school was a strange experience this week. After graduating from high school almost 25 years ago, it seems that most things have stayed the same. Students still act like students (and wear silly clothing although I still wear my belt above my hips, the old-fashioned way); teachers still work hard to teach within the chaos. But my perspective has changed. After only one day in class, I am questioning the effectiveness of the whole framework of our public high schools. Specifically, does it make sense to ask a teacher to teach Physics to 133 students each day in 5 large classroom groups meeting just one hour per day? That seems overwhelming to me right now.

Maybe even more important than this teacher to student ratio is difficulty in overcoming some student's lack of motivation. If the student doesn't want to learn Physics, does it make sense to have a system that requires this subject? My high school is struggling with a high drop-out rate. The teachers are highly motivated to fix the problems, but it seems to me that the students also need to bring at least a modicum of their own motivation. The adage, "You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink," seems to apply here. Some things don't change.