what even is it? this master that rules us all….

I think of these lovely well-meaning, probably nice people, all sitting around genuinely believing they are doing good for children writing away, contemplating every word. I do think it smacks of what a lawyer (friend’s father) once said about the law – that a belief in God made doing law easier. He said that having an external decider of rules made it easier for him to go about not thinking of it being him, the person, deciding things for other people. I am sure that there are a lot of teachers out there who believe in the curriculum. It means they have ‘something to hang their hat on’ that they are not personally responsible for what children learn. As a devout rationalist, an atheist, and as a humanist, I know we made that stuff up. It is made up, and I will say it again, it is MADE UP.

The curriculum is made up. We could say that it was made up by a group, so could it be considered a community project, agreed on by all the members? Well, years ago in NZ, the ‘powers that be’ realised that this was not true and we got Tomorrows Schools. Local funding and local governance of schools. Parents could have a choice… it was to be an attempt at increasing community diversity, a reflection of differences within our community.  OR was it? Because guess what, schools started being compared, our schools became less diverse – if you had the $ go to the school that ensures your kid gets the old boy network leg up (I guess this was the same old trope just more so) people did. The government got to save mega bucks by having an unpaid, untrained board of governers at schools that had to deal with everything, including the maintenance of  the buildings, hiring staff, the law etc. The NZ curriculum was written to help this – nice big broad brush strokes so schools could interpert and focus on what the board or is it the Principal, or just some force of personality or the safety of convention… decided was important in this set of rules (so reasonable) called the curriculum.

Of course, nowhere does it say in the curriculum that there must be “an hour of maths and literacy” nor does it say anything about National Standards (this thing schools use to have where someone made up a set of  steady upward rising levels that children had to reach at certain ages, like 5…. 6!!). There is nothing about cell phones. This is just extra stuff the government of the day adds on.

The curriculum even includes characteristics of what we want in children.

I used to follow the NZ curriculum. Well, I looked at it occasionally and decided retrospectively that my darling had met some objective or other. In fact, I might have expoused on it, as I have been subject to others (English) and seen some of the step by step versions that are popular in certain sectors of the homeschool community.

Now, as I watch my child on the cusp of womanhood and look at the curriculum, it just looks irrelevant. Like something, neither of us wants to be governed by. We have the general idea for a recipe, but the cake that results isn’t quite what we like, so we want to chuck in some other ingredients and change the method a bit so we will. Because we can. I wrote in for a homeschool application when my child turned 6, and it is still valid, but I am renegging on what I said. My child gets to choose her curriculum. How exciting, I wonder what it will be. I bet it will be fun and joyful. I recon she will even get a job… but best of all, she will always be able to think of something to learn, something to be interested in, she will be able to make her very own path in her very own life in the community that she actually lives in and is part of.