What
are the "most powerful" examples of each of the 3 types of curricula
in your school?
How
much of the null curriculum should you be paying attention to?
Examples of Tri-Curricula at Sacred Heart School - Ateneo de Cebu
(SHS-AdC)
Declared and Explicit
The
Explicit Curriculum is the apparent and fairly graspable evidence of a
curriculum one can readily observe at SHS-AdC.
This advertised curriculum is self-evident in the Vision-Mission as a
Jesuit school along the tradition of excellence, leadership and service,
further expounded in our school’s Core Values that guide all plans and
efforts. Cascading this written
curricular framework to specifics resulted to the proposed 2013 Long Term
Action Goals and Graduate Outcomes which is further cascaded to the different
goals and objectives of the the subject areas of the each department (the HS,
GS & EED) and the unit programs such as those of the formation units like
the Guidance Office, the Campus Ministry and the Discipline Office. This
explicit and declared curriculum leans on Chinese-Filipino heritage of the
school as well at its supported emphasis on the Science and Math Curricular
programs.
Implied
We
intend and hope that results of learning from our schooling here at SHS-AdC
would be manifested along this explicit curriculum.
Nonetheless,
the assertion of John Dewey of a pervasive yet subtle influence of the implicit
curriculum is something I can strongly agree to. Although not declared and not intended, these
implicit results of our type of schooling creates important expectations for
students.
For
one, SHS-AdC forms part of the Philippine Educational system that “seeks to
modify the child’s behavior to comply with goals that the child had no hand in
formulating and that might not have any intrinsic meaning”. Compliance is an important undeclared purpose
that our system of authority over the students’ behavior and thought implies.
Our organizational
set-up, from the classroom to the administrative spheres, are traditional and hierarchical
“with students at the bottom rung of the ladder” and formal communication
within and around the school organization is top down. When laid out along the prevalent rules and
routines of “students must not speak unless called on” or that “virtually all
activities within a course (subject) … determined by the teacher”, this
tendency for compliance is concrete.
It
is of course practical and realistic that schools, SHS-AdC being a typical
basic educational institution, are molds for compliant behavior as they serve a
Philippine society which is also set up in the same way – businesses running
top down, hierarchically, and with rank and file or citizens following routines
for order and predictability. Indeed our
school, as a social device for perpetuating a status quo, takes part in excellently
preparing students for this kind of social set-up.
There
is however a specific implied emphasis that one can gleam in the allocation of
time for our subjects. To me, it is
apparent that curricular offerings and activities are considered equally
important. Academics is not given more
than the necessary attention it requires over the other activities such as
athletics or culture and the arts. The
fact that our school has Directors in-charge in these fields says something
very important.
Take
for example the schedule and time allotment for subjects. Our schedules don't relegate some subjects only
in prime hours to the prejudice of other subjects. One will find Science, Math, PE, Service
Practicum (Outreach Activity) and Club Activity in both primetime and unholy
times. PE can be in morning or afternoon
as Science and Math. Club meetings and
Service Practicum are part of the eight (8) period-schedule in a day, enjoying
the same time allotment as one academic subject.
Furthermore,
although we appear rigid with requirements for academics and student activities
but spiritual activities run parallel through these by way of class prayers
during periods while recollections and masses are given focused or allotted
days.
A
strive for balance communicates the importance of balance to students. All
student engagements - spiritual, extra curricular and academics – considered being
equal and important. In fact, the treatment of grades being averaged each
quarter, and all subjects taken into as addends reinforces this implied purpose,
not explicitly declared or written anywhere in our documents but intuitively
understood by stakeholders of SHS-AdC education.
However,
there is a price for this implied pursuit for balance, an implicit of the
implicit curriculum it seems. Since all subjects and activities are given
importance, students bring all things everyday so as not to miss out on any
requirement should a student forget a schedule class or mess up remembering
whether today is a scheduled class especially for subjects that do not meet
Monday to Friday. As a result, students
are overburdened with school materials, not all of which will be needed for the
day.
Does
this imply then that we value the strong student who can carry all his stuff or
those who are assisted (those with drivers and yayas) who can load those
materials day in and day out?
Does
this also imply that we value the idea that those who can succeed are those
always equipped with the logistical armory of books, notes & requirements,
and that these are primordial to learning rather than flexibility or the
limited-to-essential-materials-only disposition? Does this imply that preparation is having
all the materials even those not needed because one can manage to, versus,
proper organizing of needed logistics?
There
is also I believe an implied curriculum in the cleanliness, order, convenience prevalent
in our school environment, not that these are not important but the point
being, that these conditions carry an implied message, that is, our ease with
abundance and efficiency. Comparing our
school condition with those of the public schools that lack resources, our
campus looks much beautiful and well maintained which, to me, implies our ease
with abundance and efficient operations similar to business factories and
establishments (cubicle rooms with arranged chairs, the clean environment, new
cars & gadgets noticeable among parents and students, prettified fashion
get ups of our parents). One senses that
natural manifest of social status of families and students enrolled at SHS-AdC
and the kind of lifestyle they adhere, an implied preference for abundance and
precision efficiency typifying positions of privileged status.
Options that students are not afforded (null)
Even
as we strive for balance, what is it that we have missed in our education and
formation of our students? What is it
that they don't or won’t know with and through us? What is it that they have but will be unable
to use after their schooling with us?
SHS-AdC
has missed out opportunities too when it comes to schooling that fosters
wisdom, reduce prejudice or explore modes of thinking. The cultivation of imagination – the brewing
and distillation of creativity among students as a habit of mind– is our null
curriculum.
True,
Arts education and culture and arts programs are activities we offer which does
provide exposure of our students to the metaphorical, poetic and beyond literal
but offering a explicit content, design and implemented efforts to develop the
mind of teachers and students toward developing perception for new patterns,
understanding multiple meanings, intimation, nuances and analogy are sporadic,
if not completely null. According to
Albert Einstein, “The true test of intelligence is not knowledge but
imagination. Imagination is more
important than knowledge.” Our rigorous
academic program and ironclad timetable does reinforce this veering away from what
Einstein finds as true education – developing imagination, brewing creativity –
and somehow prevents our students to nurture the joy of discovery.
To learn
a song “from one bird” rather “than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance”
may be something almost all of our students will not reach to. I feel that they will sing songs about stars
but still they will teach these stars to dance after their schooling with
us. It would be rare to find a graduate
who would learn a song from a bird. Many
then will be missing the joy of learning over the abundant knowledge that they
will certainly have.
I
would definitely agree that understanding the arts of the vernacular is a
life-long and life-improving learning that students must have. Unfortunately, we don’t have this. The arts of the vernacular is very important
and pervasive in our lives especially as every generation becomes subtly and
extensively exposed to broadcast and digital media.
Being
able to read the vernacular arts, how these persuade and motivate for example
through the varied advertisements, understanding their hidden but mind-imposing
meanings and how it allude us – these are necessary skills that 21st
century learners must have. The
iniquitousness of media requires an indispensable critical consciousness only
possible through education or schooling in the arts of the vernacular.
Although
secondary education in SHS-AdC has a MAPEH curriculum, which prescribes arts
content, it is mainly a watered-down input of sports teachers on superficial
concepts of arts and does not afford our students a meaningful learning of the
arts even in general.
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