In the context of our changing world, what should children be learning to prepare them for the future and what parts of the curriculum could be streamlined? Heidi Hayes Jacobs explored these questions in her Special Feature session.
Heidi Hayes Jacobs
Educators are overwhelmed by the mass of standards imposed on them, Jacobs warned, adding, "We can't do everything; we have to make some choices." Content, skills, and assessment are a curriculum designer's compositional tools, she explained.
From her designer's viewpoint, Jacobs advocated giving students more time to focus on learning math concepts. "I'd like to eliminate snapshot mathematics—four weeks of addition, four weeks of fractions," she declared. In 6th grade, teachers sometimes find students still don't know how add or use fractions, Jacobs said. "You know why? We rushed them."
Jacobs said a teacher from Japan once told her, "We have a saying in our school: You don't move from the addition station until you have the ticket." Yet in too many U.S. schools, Jacobs complained, "We just shove them on that subtraction train."
While we spend too little time on math, Jacobs said, we spend too much time teaching the history of our home states. "The teaching of state history is a total waste of time," she contended, because many students will move out of the state and the learning will have little relevance for them. "Right now middle and high school kids need to know a heck of a lot more about the world than they do about their state."
The world is a "geo-economic chessboard," Jacobs said, and students need to build an understanding of global politics. Currently U.S. students and their parents see world events "from a myopic view," she cautioned. "Our kids are so isolated it's terrifying." Jacobs advocated using the Web and e-mail to aid international communication among students and foster democratic responsibility.
As we struggle with curriculum revisions, Jacobs advised, we should favor choices that encourage student engagement, creativity, deeper learning, and empowerment.