Curriculum

    

Curriculum has existed for thousands of years, starting in the west with Plato and Aristotle. History, science, creative writing, mathematics, ethics, philosophy, speech and drama, rhetoric, logic, fine art, music, physical education...all were taught by the ancient Greeks, along with pragmatic skills such as farming, building construction and engineering, and soldiering, depending on where one studied and what one intended to do. The idea of "curriculum" is ancient, in the public domain, and requires no approval for the authoring of new curriculum from any existing entity.

Plato was one of the first in the West to state or document the purpose for each area (or course) of study , particularly in the various areas of mathematics, in The Republic . (Plato was born in 427 B.C.) Plato defines the sort of education the "Guardians" of the city should have, in the chapter entitled Education of the Philosopher . "Consider how men of this kind are to be produced. What is at issue is the conversion of the mind from a kind of twilight to the true day, that climb up into reality...So we must try to find out what sort of studies have this effect." He proceeds to do so from his perspective, focusing largely on music, poetry, mathematics, physical education, military training and practical skills.

Plato breaks down and specifies the need for study in each area of mathematics in his chapter, The Five Mathematical Studies. He makes specific and separate arguments as to why a leader must study arithmetic, plane geometry, solid geometry, astronomy, and what he calls "harmonics", which has to do with solid bodies and motion (Physics, in other words). The purpose for each study and the anticipated and desired result for both the individual being educated, and for the city-state the individual will participate in, are carefully debated and defined.

Aristotle in The Politics , in his chapter The Education of the Ideal King , states the purpose of education as he saw it; "...The education and morals that make a man sound, and those that make him fit to play the part of a statesman or of a king, are more or less identical." In the same book, in the chapter entitled Education as a Public Concern , Aristotle writes "There must (also) be preparatory training for all skills and capacities, and a process of preliminary habituation to the work of each profession." He states in his writings that education should move the student toward action which is "right" or "good", rather than merely "correct". He believes that physical training, music, debate, science and philosophy are required studies in forming a whole being, the goal of education overall to Aristotle.

As a matter of course, virtually every educator and philosopher who has ever lived has at one time or another defined, in writing, the purpose of education, and of individual areas in study. The examples above, around 2,400 years old, are offered to demonstrate the age of this practice, and the fact that no one today can claim proprietary rights over this practice.

Will Durant in his writings, mandated the purpose of a study of history, when he stated in his book, The Reformation ; "The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding" .

It is precisely Durant's mandate I've utilized in the authoring of my history courses, which are the core of my curriculum, with Creative Writing (an area I've worked in professionally since I was 16 years old) and science.

The idea of teaching subjects in ordered and structured ways, to a given result , is at least as old as the Platonic Greeks, again around 2.400 years ago, in the West. One of the first western schools we know of, the Academy, dates back to Plato himself, and was dedicated to the systematic teaching of various subjects. Such studies, and the statement of a goal in conjunction with each area of study, have been with Western civilization for thousands of years, and this is most easily and immediately demonstrated in the area of mathematics and through the writings of Plato in The Republic . That subjects have been taught this way since the first European Universities came into existence toward the end of the Medieval period is not debatable. Virtually all education has been done this way for many hundreds of years in the West. Studies have also existed in this form for at least that long in the East, as can be seen in the writings of Plato's contemporary, Confucius (more later).

As to the defining of terms used in a study , Socrates always starts and builds every study around this technique, in Plato's Republic . The defining of terms as the basis of understanding and, hence, education has been with the west for at least 2,400 years. Entire chapters, indeed nearly the entire book The Republic is built around a discussion of the meaning and application of single words and concepts, such as "justice", "liberty", or "morality". Indeed, the defining of terms is demonstrated to be the foundation of an understanding of any and all philosophies, and of life. Accordingly, this can be seen to be an understood and essential aspect in education in the West for over 2,400 years.

Nearly every great thinker in history, from Plato to Aristotle to Confucius to Buddha to Ben Franklin to Voltaire, stated that a person must understand words to understand an area, or to even discuss it. This became such an in-built part of education that dictionaries became a necessity a long time ago, the first English language dictionary being printed in 1604, A Table Alphabeticall , by Shakespearian contemporary Robert Cowdrey. No one has proprietary rights over the defining of terms as part of a course of study. And the very thoroughness of dictionaries, covering roots, etc, for hundreds of years, indicates a universal understanding of what is expected when one defines a word.

In my courses, difficult and important words are provided simple and applicable definitions before materials are studied . This application of the defining of words prior to study comes from Mathematics, which is (and has nearly always been) taught in the following manner: A term, concept or method is defined first; examples given of the use of the term, concept or method; problems are given to the student using the method just taught; student's results are evaluated. You would be hard-pressed to find many math courses of study written in the last several hundred years (or longer) that works in another manner. I've built all my courses of study structurally along this format, one inherent to math, science and philosophy for hundreds of years. This format is the property of the species. Islamic mathematicians used it during the European Dark Ages, as various documents demonstrate. It's old.

Additionally, mathematics (as well as language studies) is and has long been a model subject for the concept of teaching in "gradients" , a concept again dating back thousands of years, as described ably by Plato in The Republic in the section entitled Education of the Philosopher , and one which nearly every educator has awareness of. Plato makes it clear that mathematical courses of study must be delivered in order, as they build on each other. Arithmetic is (and must be) followed by Geometry, and that by Physics. The idea that a teacher builds an education through increasingly complex steps, and that the next part of one's education should be built on the materials learned and understood in the previous part, can be clearly seen in documents as old The Republic . It's very old.

Language, even Latin, is and has almost always been taught by giving a student a list of rules, words and definitions, then building these into cognitive sentences, and then adding "gradiently" more words and definitions and assignments until the student achieves fluency, and this, an easily documented manner, has been so since at least the medieval period in, in Universities throughout the Western world. Languages, accordingly and like math and philosophy, have been taught using "gradients" . This has been so for thousands of years.

Confucius, Plato's contemporary, as does any good educator, clearly understands "gradients". He states in his section in On Education , entitled The Process of Learning , that "a good questioner proceeds like a man chopping wood -- he begins at the easier end, attacking the knots last." In further describing a college education, he says that one of the priorities is to "teach the different subjects in proper sequence." He claims that "to fail to teach the different subjects in their proper order would bring about chaos in their studies, without good results" . He is clearly aware of "gradients". And so, accordingly, are his hundreds of millions of adherents, for the past 25 centuries.

The idea of gradients in education is very old, probably as old as education itself. I came to grips with gradients in education from my own education, my exposure to history, religion and philosophy, and mostly from my work as an artist (which has been life long from the age of five), and my own teaching career which started at age 15, in the areas of acting, directing and writing. But I had already been exposed, through my work as an artist.

Every artist inherently understands and utilizes gradients both in their own training, and in the actual creation of a work of art. Bach understood that he had to establish a first theme, state it so that it was understood in his composition, and then add a second and third theme...this is the essence of fugue. Fugues are the musical demonstration of "gradients", as is nearly any constructed piece of music. Furthermore, Bach understood that the teaching of skills in music would have to be in a gradient manner, as can be seen in his instructional series of exercises, The Well-Tempered Clavier.

Shakespeare understands that to build a complex play, you introduce thoroughly one element at a time, establish it, and then add another, and another, until you have a rich tapestry which the audience is able to thoroughly comprehend only because you've worked in gradients. Every decent writer understands this concept. It's inherent to nearly all art. Dancers choreograph using the same principal. Gradients and artists are ancient allies. I am a playwright, composer, writer, choreographer, and director, and have been for a long time. I have always understood the principle of "gradients". No one taught it to me; no one "owns" gradients as a concept, or as an element of education.

There are other elements employed in my curriculum, of course. I number each step in every area of study , just as every math book numbers every assignment. I do this so the student can easily see where he is in his studies, and so a teacher may work with the additional materials provided with each course, including tests. Again, nearly every math program ever known to man does this. It is an old technique used to organize studies.

I break down each course of study into daily "lesson plans" , as many math study programs have for a long time, certainly going back to the 1800s (and as every moderately successful classroom teacher has done, consciously or otherwise, since education began).

My courses also have students look up on a map and globe any location they will be studying . The study of geography, especially in conjunction with history, is also an old technique. Caesar claims to have studied Geography, and Aristotle is claimed to have taught it to Alexander, along with ethics and other studies.

The assignment of exercises and/or tests for a student to do as he acquires a new skill or new information, as both a method of demonstrating and developing understanding of materials studied , is easily as old as the teaching of mathematics and science, thousands of years. Every student who ever did a column of math problems, dating back to Archimedes, knows this.

Additionally, such exercises are and have ever been a staple in the training of a student in any of the arts (as in painting, dance, music or acting), and as such, are easily demonstrated (through "modern" methods of acting instruction, such as Delsarte or Stanislavski, through the normal training methodology in ballet for over 150 years, through every system for the training of the voice since Mozart or music since Bach) to be very old in the West.

Aristotle, in Nichoachean Ethics, Book II , distinguishes two methods of education. One is through a process of reasoning, and the other, experience. "Anything that we have to learn to do we learn by the actual doing of it." Clearly, Aristotle understood the need for pragmatic, experiential exercises in study.

This sort of educational tool goes back as a standard practice in education in the West to Athens and Sparta, and even earlier in the East. The Spartans made a life of such exercises, intended to demonstrate and increase expertise over their studies of the art of war. The use of "military exercises" noted and ancient.

Further as to the student's demonstration of skills based on what one has learned, this is patently the purpose of any and all Internships, an institution at least as old as guilds (the medieval period) in Europe, and much older in the East. A guild was designed to allow a person to increase in rank within his chosen profession based on a demonstration of an organized series of particular, required skills learned at the side of a "craftsman", and then perfected by the initiate. This is common knowledge.

But beyond the above-mentioned examples, there's scarcely a successful line of study engaged in at any time in history that does not expect a student to demonstrate expertise in an area of study, from the writing of a language by ancient scribes, to the skills required of the medieval jouster, to Bach's instruction of his own children in the art of composition (to which end he composed many exercises , and note, these are called "exercises" in music, the term I've chosen to use in my courses, as I am and have ever been a musician), to today's craftsman.

Tests on materials studied have always been a part of education. There is likely no time in recorded history when they were not. Per Confucius (in The Wisdom of Confucius, On Education ), education was "ancient" in his day, 2,500 years ago, and a system of local schools through Universities, had already long-existed in his day. Additionally, he speaks of "examinations", tests taken at the end of courses of study. This technique of study followed by testing to demonstrate an understanding of one's studies is even older in the East than in the West.

Further, in the same document, Confucius describes a system where "No inspector is sent to the college, that the students may be left alone to develop themselves" , after compiling a list of what should be studied, year after year. This more than implies personalized and individual study as a concept used by the Chinese for thousands of years, something many western educators have grabbed onto as useful over the years.

Children have, needless to say, been creating drawings since history began and then some, as a part of their lessons. I ask students to draw many things they're studying. This is a very old educational technique, perhaps as old as cave paintings, and certainly as old as the Medieval period. Many Islamic medical texts survive this period, filled with student and expert drawings of the human body and its functions. Hand-drawn (even in clay) charts of the starts in the heavens served the ancient Egyptians and Greeks as study guides.

We ask children to write many essays . Essays go back at least to Montaigne (the 1600s), and it can be argued that various Roman writers were essayists. Even St. Paul could be seen to be an essayist in his epistles. This is an old technique used to demonstrate a point of view, and expertise, in a subject. Certainly the essay is an ancient (and due to its misuse, a dreaded) aspect of education used heavily in the United State during most of the last several centuries.

All my history and science courses, and some other courses, use standard textbooks , as their textual base. My study guides, particularly in the areas of history, science, poetry and sports, are often built around these specific books, and other related materials such as films. In this manner, these courses are designed as college courses have been for centuries. If a text does not exist then I construct one, after a review of the data available in that area of study.

Students use the "study guide" provided them to walk through their texts and other study materials, step by step. Every study guide now consists entirely of a series of daily "lesson plans" , and this system goes back a long way. Every teacher (if they're going to teach for more than a few days) learns to create lesson plans covering yearly, semester, and daily teaching to be done, and this has nearly always been so. This is and has been standard operating procedure for teachers since The Academy, in the West. One constructs a course of study, and breaks it down into daily "bites". A teacher then provides his student his daily lesson.

Every one of my "study guides" consists solely of a series of daily lesson plans, each built in approximately the same manner. Each lesson plan starts with locations to be found on maps and a globe (if applicable), words which will be included in materials to be studied are defined, then materials are studied, and then exercises are done to master and fully understand the materials studied.

In the case of CTT, lesson plans are written down (much as a college course instructor would create a syllabus, a detailed list of what must be done to complete a course of study), and the student proceeds through, step by step. Colleges have worked this way a very long time. Math courses always work this way, and almost always have. This is an old technique, and no one "owns" it.

I first started teaching in my teens (acting and writing), and the first thing I realized at that time was the need for a written course of study and a series of lesson plans, built gradiently. It was patently obvious what had to happen to teach successfully. All decent teachers come to this conclusion, and rapidly. (Please note, I was teaching at the University level, at USC, CSUN, and other schools, by the time I was 24, and without having gone to college for so much as one day. I learned to operate this way as a survival point, and no one told me how. I just ended up doing what all decent teachers do .)

The above describes the elements and organization of which my courses are made. Every element, and the organizing of these elements, is quite old. I am attempting to create courses which stand alone. As illustrated above, these courses use ancient, proven techniques and concepts which, again, all of our educations were determined by in better times.

A few more points, just to assure a thorough disclosure of the facts. Other areas of study have been developed in various courses, as indicated above. I don't believe I need describe in detail courses on music, animation, sports, or acting.

The Creative Writing Program consists of many courses. One of the ideas communicated to students in the early courses is that a work of art communicates a "message" to its audience. Plato clearly understood this concept as can be readily seen in The Republic , Education, The First Stage; Secondary or Literary Education . He speaks of the impressionability of students, and the importance of the ideas communicated to them through their readings of poetry (their "media"). Aristotle defines in The Poetics the entire effect that is to be created be each type of poetry, be it a tragic or comic piece. He makes it clear each piece is to have an effect on the audience specific to its breed, and that each type of poem is appropriate to communicate a certain type of "message".

"Messages" in art are as old as art, and every artist understands that his work communicates such. Louis B. Mayer (Metro Goldwyn Mayer), the famous movie producer, said in the 1930s when he felt his writers were "turning serious" on him; "If you want to send a message , call Western Union". This word has been in the language for a while, used in the way Mayer used it, to describe the single idea a work of art intends to communicate. I developed mine in my teens, when I first started teaching. The remainder of these courses involve writing techniques such as "outlines"; "character development"; and "structure" that all writers have used since writing began. They're all defined by Aristotle in The Poetics , and Confucius in The Analects , and by uncountable others. They are, in fact, a part of the operating basis of artists, and have been for thousands of years.

We have a course on right behavior, based on the idea that "manners" are good when they contribute to an understanding and respect for others . This concept goes back minimally to Plato and Confucius. In Aristotle's On Education , he discusses at length the need to have all education work toward allowing the student to do that which is "good" or "right", and not just what is "socially acceptable".

Confucius claimed in his First Discourse that when he entered a country, he could tell about the type of education people received there by the nature of the people, how they treated others. He believed, as he stated repeatedly in this discourse, that the precise subjects taught to a person, and methods used to teach, directly contribute to the nature of the adult the person becomes. The entire discourse covers this. In his essay Ethics and Politics, section VII, On The Relationship Between Family and National Life, Confucius claims "Those who would order their national life must set about ordering their home life". He proceeds to explain how right behavior in relationships starts at home and that one should correct one's own behavior, then one's family, and that such "right action" spreads outwards to the neighborhood, and the state. He describes the damage one greedy or wrong-acting man may have on a family or a nation.

Confucius describes in the Li Ji the idea that a parent must cause their children to be productive and, (to use the phrase common in our group for the sake of shorthand), "in exchange". He states "In loving their children...parents must exact some effort from them". In the Xiao Jing , he further describes what right family behavior would be, claiming a child's debts to their parents include revering them, making them happy, caring for them when they're ill, etc. He emphasizes the need for courtesy in family (and then other) relationships.

These concepts, forwarded by Confucius, Aristotle and others, are the foundation for our course on Manners.

We have a course on how to take a vacation . We have a spelling course , where students isolate in their own weekly writings words they're misspelling and learn to spell the words on the list created in a week of their work. We have a reading program , where the student essentially selects what he wants to read, without any enforcement or "required books". (I have never seen a reading program done this way, but it is how I learned to read and enjoy reading as a child, and was taught to me by my grandparents.) We have an Artist's Basics course, based on my own observations (noted and notated for over 30 years) of the qualities successful artists' master. These are based solely on my own experience and observations.

     Steven Horwich
     Connect The Thoughts