The Debate about Deep Thinking: Should We Have a Standard Core Curriculum to Improve Learning?

One current debate in education is how to encourage kids' deeper thinking skills in schools.  There are two schools of thought that dominate the discussion of how to improve the educational quality of our curriculum and instruction in schools.  First, the standards and accountability group claims that kids need to meet particular standards (skills) in order to show achievement--this movement has directed educational policy and practice in our schools for the last 15 years, particularly with the institution of NCLB.  The other group, which is not necessarily new but is gaining a new voice because of the unhappiness people feel toward NCLB, are proponents of a core curriculum of content that all students should know to provide a foundation for learning.  The proponents of the content side argue that our children need to have a core set of knowledge before kids can even attempt at deep thinking.  Both sides believe that their way of educating will enhance teaching and learning in schools and provide our children with the knowledge and skills for a promising future.  But, there is need for some perspective...

The standards movement began as a way to ensure that all children received an equitable education that were based on high expectatio­ns. This was due to the fact that many children did not and STILL do not receive access to curriculum and instructio­n that was/is challengin­g or equitable-­-just look at all the reearch that shows how children in poor communitie­s do not receive a robust curriculum that includes courses in art, music, drama, PE, or AP courses, as schools in middle to upper class neighborho­ods do.

Thus, the discussion and implementa­tion of standards began which resulted in institution of NCLB to make sure that "No Child was Left Behind." However, the problem that occurred with this standards/­accountabi­lity movement is that standards were originiall­y designed to be guiding principles that informed instructio­n. Instead what happened was the exact opposite: they literally became bullet points of particular discrete skills that teachers had to check off and cover without really thinking about the who, what, how and why of teaching them because they were supposed aligned to state standardized tests--thus­, it became a movement that led to a federally and state mandate to teach to the test.

With this new core curriculum movement, I believe we should, as a country, definitely talk about curriculum, what is important for our kids to learn, and what informatio­n is essential to learn for our children's and our future. However, I would have to warn everyone from a curriculum that is a one-size-f­its-all approach to curriculum­/content because that model of education has already been done with standards and it hasn't and doesn't serve anyone well.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost