Limiting influences on the high school curriculum

The education of the youth of a country has always been a matter of the utmost importance. On the ability of a people to select the right content of the curricula and to employ the right method of instruction have always depended the progress and the perpetuity of that people. Each age and each generation must deal with the construction and reconstruction of curricula. The problems and difficulties involved are many, difficult of solution, and closely related. Today social and economic conditions make it necessary to depend on the school for the development of future citizens. The curricula of these schools must embody an educational philosophy which shall conform to the social and political philosophy of this complex age. Under limited and static curricula, new inventions and discoveries may change the social and economic order. Scientific investigations may disclose error and superstition and yet the schools may fail to free the people from outworn creeds and harmful dogmas. The importance of the curriculum as a means of shaping national and individual ideals is recognized by the great nations of the world. Kandel1 has edited a recent report of a conference of representatives of these nations. These representatives stressed the necessity for curricula that would better meet the needs of this complex age, and would be better fitted for a changed civilization. The power of tradition was stressed as one of the influences that limited the curricula. In America we find even greater stress being placed on the construction of proper courses of study. In every section of the nation thousands of teachers, supervisors, and administrators are giving the matter serious study, in situations where they have every opportunity to study first hand. At a recent conference held at Northwestern University2 the trends in curriculum making were discussed by some of the leading educators of America. Running through all these discussions is an ever-recurring reference to the fact that secondary education is limited by influences outside the legitimate field of psychology and education

Civilization · Curriculum · Curriculum development · Curriculum theory · Economics · Engineering ethics · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Perpetuity · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Superstition · Education and Critical Thinking Development · Educational Challenges and Innovations · Engineering · Law · Psychology