As the title states we have entered an era where our teaching lives are now dominated by a “crammed” curriculum. And I truly believe it is time to try something new. But before we explore this we need to ask some important questions first. What is a crammed curriculum exactly? why is it crammed? and more importantly, how do we “uncram” it?

So…in finding out the answer to the “what” is a complex issue.

Firstly we need to understand that somewhere in some hidden part of our illustrious educational departments is an unseen entity that sits there and devises evil ways to make teachers lives harder. I even think they may have relatives hiding in our health and police departments also doing exactly the same thing to them.

So this hidden entity is essentially made up of bureaucrats that decide in all of their wisdom that things are not being done well enough. And that they should with their expert knowledge and guidance set out to improve it.

If there is one thing I have learnt in all my years on this planet is that when these people do this, they inevitably mess things up big time. Their political egos and hidden agendas just seem to make things go backwards instead of forwards.

And to be fair they don’t exactly have an easy job and that’s made even more difficult when they don’t really get out there and see the big picture. Perhaps this might infringe on their political ideals for what they feel is “right”, but who knows.

In my almost twenty six years of teaching I have only ever spotted two government bureaucrats mulling around in a school away from their natural habitat. And only one of them actually asked me for my honest opinion about our education system. Now we do see state and federal politicians occasionally but they only come out into the “real” world on very rare occasions. Mainly to shake a few hands, and show people that they do actually exist in the flesh around election times. They do not (or a least in my opinion) give a hoot about any worthy or humble teachers view on anything, let alone something as important as the school’s curriculum.

Another important issue is that our educational curriculums also have way too much teaching content with not nearly enough time to teach it. This with the added bonus of students who are less than cordial in their behaviour and attitudes (disruptive, rude and sometimes violent) has sent teacher’s stress levels, sky high. Unfortunately when teachers are overloaded with work they pass this negative energy onto their students who inevitably become more disengaged from their learning. When this happens, nobody wins… not the schools, not the teachers and definitely not the students.

The curriculum is also drawn up by these people (supposedly teachers) who in most cases (or so it would seem) have never been near children let alone a classroom full of them. This has become more evident to me when trying my hardest to implement age appropriate pedagogy (teaching stuff to kids when they are developmentally ready to learn it). Yes, you can teach a four year old how to read but it can leave their fine motor, gross motor, cognitive, sharing, curiosity, social, emotional and expressive skills lacking somewhat in many other areas. Just something extra to consider.

Perhaps another issue that we need to be aware of here is how the curriculum writers also seem to think that every child everywhere is going to get straight A’s…every time. Yes, it’s great to set the bar high in any field or endeavour but in our curriculum’s case, this has somehow gone to the extreme.

So now we have established what we are dealing with… how in the world do we make it better? Well, the first thing that could improve everybody’s lives is to give them (the teachers) more autonomy to do what they are paid to do, and that is teach. If we the teachers can actually have more ownership of the subjects we taught, then we would have more input into it. So, the curriculum could be a very basic guide as to what is expected and the how to do it could be interpreted and taught in a miriad of ways. This goes back to the old saying (from my first book) that there are as many ways to teach as there are teachers. And perhaps the best outcome for our teachers, our governments and of course our students is to be trusting with the content that these teachers wish to teach.

Another aspect of the crammed curriculum is the question….do our students really need to know all of this content to be confident and well balanced individuals?

Personally, I think not. Lets try to go back (or perhaps move forwards) to the essentials, which are the three R’s – Reading, writing and arithmetic. Everything else should be classified as an elective subject and given only if the students actually want to learn it (especially in the early years). Lets give them more empowerment over what it is that they wish to know in their world (crazy idea, I know!).

Another important aspect to this issue could be the reduction in school hours or even school days. And this begs another question…..why do children have to go to school for so long?

As pointed out by the great educational reformist Ken Robinson, the current Western educational framework hasn’t changed much since the time of the industrial revolution. So, it would seem that our educational approach is seriously lagging behind in our modern world. Perhaps cut school days back by an hour or so. Maybe introduce a four-day school week instead of five. The time is ripe to try something new.

Yes, there is a lot of trust that needs to be implemented here yet I feel that it is worth it in the long term. There is also the risk of some “lazy” people creeping in the teaching profession through this. But I feel that this is a better alternative than having all of our great and legendary teachers get tired and worn out and start leave teaching for good (which they are currently doing in droves).

There is also the issue of teachers being overloaded with extras roles and duties that used to be done at home by parents but I’ll save that for another blog sometime in the future.

Let’s just let teachers teach and let kids be kids.