Thoughts

Hello All!

I've been thinking about my narrative all weekend, as I'm sure you all have done as well, and I'm wondering if anyone is having similar problems as me. While I have been dialogging with different members within my school, I'm finding that most of the teachers don't even really know what the curriculum says. They mentioned the "Door Stop Curriculum" which literally means they use the print out of the curriculum to hold open their doors, and that basically it is all a waste of time.
When I was talking to a few of the teachers, I had a hard time getting them to think outside of the restraints of their program, schedule, school, district, and community and to get them to think about education and curriculum as a whole. They are so stuck on the concerns that constrain their own teaching and their own programs that they can not even see the big picture.
I guess I found this interesting because I feel like we Westminster students spend much of our time thinking about the big picture and don't ever really think about the restraints that we might focus within our own future MUSIC programs. I think that this is good for us in a way because we will be able to defend education as a whole and make music a central part of education. However, I'm finding problems with this as well, because while yes, I am able to think about education and education in music, I am having trouble thinking about my own teaching and what I want my students to know about music in a practical sense.
This also made me think that maybe curriculum is more than just what the students should learn from the class and what they should be able to accomplish. Maybe scheduling, programing, outside knowledge, etc. should all be considered a large part of curriculum.

Just some food for thought. Let me know what you're thinking.