Paradigm shift: Curriculum is not something you buy
~ Written by Sarah Mackenzie of Amongst Lovely Things.
What if we’ve got it all wrong?
What if it doesn’t matter which books we use, which history projects we take on, how many lessons of math we accomplish in a year?
Homeschoolers spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about “curriculum,” but what if, when we compare spelling programs and choose math books, we aren’t really talking about curriculum at all?
Curriculum isn’t something we buy. It’s something we teach. Something we embody. Something we love. It is the form and content of our children’s learning experiences.
Saxon Math isn’t the curriculum. It’s just the book that we use to teach the actual curriculum, which is: math.
If we started thinking about our children’s learning in terms of what we hope they will come to encounter in any given year rather than thinking of getting through a particular book or “covering” material, we free ourselves to learn far more than we could by binding ourselves to a set published resource. Of course we will use such resources to reach our goals — but the resource will be our servant, not our master.
Authors of curriculum resources are often wise and helpful in setting general standards and goals, but no one knows our particular children better than we do. No curriculum publisher could possibly understand our hopes and dreams for them — their strengths, their weaknesses, the longings of their hearts.
We, however, do.
Why trade that out for 36 weeks of someone else’s?
We are an anxious bunch, we homeschoolers. We fret and worry over how much of the curriculum we can cover in a year.
But curriculum cannot be covered anymore than we could hope to go over all the mysteries of the universe in 12 academic years.
Curriculum is life, and life cannot be contained within the pages of a book. Let’s not shrink this down from the splendor that it actually is. We have the opportunity here for wide expansive learning.
When our children look back on their childhood, what are they most likely to remember with pleasure? The history paper on the Hundred Years War? Or the family trip to the local museum taken on a rainy afternoon? The chapter in the science book about waterfowl, or the trumpeter swans seen on a weekend hike?
Intellectual learning is of tremendous value, of course, but in our seeking after it, let us not forget the importance of poetic knowledge. Poetic knowledge is that which we can only acquire through real experience — the rich deep knowing that happens down in our bones.
Those afternoons we forego the usual schedule to volunteer at a soup kitchen or shovel snow for the sick neighbor are of no less value than academic work. We know this at our core, but we forget when we get right down to the daily grind.
We give lip service, saying that we value service projects or family leisure but then leaving no room in our schedules for doing puzzles, taking long afternoon strolls, or making meals for the mom with a new baby down the street.
Instead: live life. Fill it to the brim with love. Take your time, and talk about everything. Doing this in front of our kids, doing this with our kids — this is the essence of poetic knowledge.
I’m not suggesting that we tack this on to our already crammed schedules. I’m suggesting that we clear the way and MAKE room. Forget about getting through every single lesson in the book between September and May. Do the next lesson, do it well, and give it our all.
But then do something else.
Don’t let published resources be the master of the curriculum. When we realize that our family camping trip is ripe with learning opportunities, we come to value that week in August as much as we value a productive academic week in January.
Once we understand that the curriculum is actually far, far bigger than any published resource could ever be, the opportunities to let all of life become teacher explode before us. The doors of learning fling wide.
Our children are indeed learning all the time — sometimes it’s academic, sometimes it’s poetic. Our children need both. Let’s not slide into thinking that nothing is happening if we aren’t hitting the books.
The real curriculum, after all, is the curriculum of life.
How do you embrace the curriculum of life in your family?
Originally published on February 7, 2014.
The power of poetry
Oh well said!! Completely, completely agree with you!!! When I look back at my schooling with my college grads the moments we remember are our nature adventures (rambles) those winter afternoons reading and reading, the time we built the Redwall Abbey etc, all part of the puzzle, we do remember some of the more academic moments too but still all pieces of a fabric
This is beautiful! It was just the thing I needed to read today…..
I’ll be sharing this for sure!!
exactly what I’ve been saying for years. only you just said it much more eloquently and succinctly. Thanks. 🙂
Great points. We believe formal learning can bring happy memories too though 🙂
In my experience you have to balance both the curricula and life. Focusing on life does no good if the children reach adulthood not ready for advanced education or pursuing their tangible dreams. On the other hand, when we focus on education and curricula to the extend of postponing or avoiding life, we lose opportunities to grow and dream. Finding a good balance took years and we’re still shifting from one side to the other as needed.
Thank you for the thought provoking post.
Really enjoyed this post. Right on! I never planned on homeschooling one of my kids, but deep down this, which you described as poetic knowledge, is what I wanted it to feel like.
Thank you for the reminder.
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I really needed this reminder. You are an angel!
I really appreciate this post, and have been trying to do this throughout the year. Every so often I find myself wondering why we haven’t finished a book yet. I have to reframe: learning is happening no matter what page we are on.
Cait Fitz @ My Little Poppies’s latest post: Homeschooling Under Construction REALLY Starts Tomorrow
Yes. Absolutely agree! My dad always said (even when I was in college!), “Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.”
Johanna’s latest post: February 2015 read-alouds
This is something of which I need to be reminded over and over. And over. It’s just so easy to get stuck in the weeds of finishing books and lists–especially, I find, as my kids become teenagers. After nine years of homeschooling, this remembering to live wide and deep is sometimes less automatic than it was in the beginning! Thanks for the nudge to stay aware and alive with my kids.
Hannah’s latest post: The Power of Poetry
I really, really love this! After many years of trial and error, reading and research, I have come to the realization that curriculum as we have come to call the packaged, preset lessons are not the answer to peace in our homeschool. Tuning into the child in front of us, embracing their strengths and honoring their challenges, and viewing life, with all its complexities, as the curriculum is the only way to have a true education. We are often attracted to the lesson plans that are all written out for us because they give us the notion that if we follow them our children will be well-educated. While these resources certainly have their place, we must look beyond them and see them as guide and inspiration and instead keep at the forefront the relationship, ours with our child and our child’s with knowledge. Do they seek it? Hunger for it? Notice what is truthful and beautiful? That, in my eyes is the curriculum, and all other things are resources to help us in that mission. Thanks so much for sharing this post. It is such a good reminder!
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Wow does this resonate with me right now. Thank you! It is so easy to become chained to the materials and feel like you need to complete a certain amount of things to feel like you’re “doing enough” or feel guilty when you spend time not doing curriculum-based things. I’ve had many a day when I’ve felt like it’s been a failure because we didn’t check off x number of tasks or finish all the lessons in a book. Partly because it feels like quitting and partly because it feels like a waste of $ not to use them even though it’s trying to fit the kid to the materials rather than just going with what works. Whenever we’ve veered away from the purchased materials and I’ve stopped watching the clock it’s been more fun and more memorable and they’ve been excited about what they’ve learned. Yet I always feel like we need to come back to the grind or we’re not doing enough/keeping up with where they need to be. I realize it is crazy because we homeschool to get away from the standard school format and I keep falling into that trap over & over. I’ve been planning to take a week off from our normal routine and get to the things that always get pushed off as not as critical like trips out, creative projects, games, etc. and this post reaffirms that’s the right decision. It’s my hope that I may finally be able to let the hold packaged curriculum has had on us go and maybe being “off the curriculum” will be our new normal.
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Preach it, Sarah! As a former classroom teacher, I feel just as strongly about this as you do.
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wow, man. i just had a major melt-down today about all the worry…am i doing enough, too much? do the kids have enough “lesson” time? too much? and i really needed this perspective today. so badly. THANK YOU!
This is one of the best homeschooling posts I’ve read in a long time! Wow. Amen and Amen! Thank you for sharing your heart and so, so much truth!
I love this post. People look at me like I am crazy when I say that we don’t use any specific curriculum, but that we learn what is interesting to us. I think that they think this means we don’t do anything. But in actuality we do so much more. We get to go as deep or as shallow into any topic that we want and my children keep the knowledge and build off of it instead of forgetting unimportant details that might be on quiz. We still have history, science, math, etc. but it isn’t on a worksheet or in a book. It is our life.
Us exactly! Sometimes I worry we’re not doing enough. Then when she takes the CAT test at the end of the “school year” (required by our state), she scores at least 3 or 4 yrs above grade level!
This is so true- I teach college ESL part-time and I am forever developing my classes- you can never just choose a book and be done with it…That is one reason teaching/helping students learn an exciting thing!
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Beautiful! I totally agree. Thanks for conveying this idea so eloquently. We embrace life learning by volunteering at the animal shelter during the “school day”. My aspergers child has a heart of gold, a deep passion for animals, and social awkwardness. When he helps with those shelter animals, he blossoms. He helps people pick out cats to adopt, he educates strangers on animal care while making eye contact (difficult for him) and he learns what real sacrificial love is. There is always time in our curriculum for that.
Today my daughter asked me to teach her to sew. We were supposed to be doing math and a million other things. Because of this and other things that have been working on my heart we put the books down. Instead we created, we bonded, I practiced patience at her imperfect attempts. It was both stressful and freeing.