- Written By: Tricia Ellis-Christensen
- Edited By: O. Wallace
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Copyright Protected:
2003-2012 Conjecture Corporation
Hidden curriculum describes things that are taught to students which aren’t part of the primary and open curriculum. It is all the messages the school sends about what is important, what behaviors are appropriate, who is valued, and much more, through a variety of more quiet communications. These messages may occur in the ways the school creates schedules, in its art or building maintenance, and in the behaviors it tacitly discourages or allows, to name just a few examples. It’s argued that hidden curriculum can especially affect students in areas of upward mobility and emotional growth or it can create confusing mixed messages that vie for attention with open curriculum.
There has been much study on this topic, and few deny that it prevails in most schools, though some schools consciously try to determine if they’re sending consistent messages that are not in line with open curriculum. It is difficult to always be consistent — individual communications are often marked by inconsistent messaging and unintended communications, so the goal of fully ridding an organization of a hidden curriculum is optimistic.
On the other hand, there are such obvious examples of when hidden curriculum has pronounced negative effects. A student attending a poorly funded school in a decaying building, without access to proper materials, gets a mixed message if the school’s official curriculum stresses the value of each student. To be told via instructional methods and faculty support that a person is valuable, when all evidence in how that person is cared for within the school is to the contrary, is a lie that can strongly affect a student’s ability to be optimistic, to trust authorities, or to build self-esteem.
Other types of hidden curriculum exist. A school with a strong focus on academics may fail to value students who are less academically inclined, creating a layered social and academic structure that devalues some students. This focus might teach academically successful students to discriminate against people who show less intelligence. Various departments of schools may be better funded than others, sending the message that some activities are more important, which may create caste or clique structures within schools.
Even in the very structure of an academic day, the schedule may say much about hidden curriculum emphasis on certain subjects. The subjects given the most time or scheduled at the most prominent parts of the day could be a means of preferencing them. If a school espouses equal teaching of all subjects, this type of scheduling opposes that goal.
Another type of hidden curriculum occurs in reliance on standardized tests, where presumably all students share the same knowledge. Unfortunately, standardized tests have occasionally been exposed as discriminatory against certain racial or ethnic groups by having questions that presume knowledge certain students won’t possess. Sometimes schools requiring these tests are said to have a hidden curriculum that gives preferential treatment to those in more privileged classes. A few colleges have abandoned requiring standardized tests for admissions to avoid prejudicial entrance requirements.
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icecream17
Post 3 |
Comfyshoes -I totally agree. You don’t have to go very far to see examples of a hidden curriculum in today’s public school.
I remember at the beginning of Obama’s administration there was even an attempt to indoctrinate our school children very much like they do in communist countries.
The Obama administration asked school children to write an essay on how to help Obama reach his political goals.
One school in Burlington New Jersey even developed a song chanting his praises. The first verse read,“ Barack Hussein Obama, He said that all must lend a hand to make this country strong again” was sung a B. Bernice Elementary School.
This was a disgraceful attempt at indoctrination and developing the hidden curriculum in today’s public schools.
There was even an inference that this country is insensitive to the less fortunate which could not be further from the truth.
The United States has always been one of the most, if not the most charitable nations on earth. |
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comfyshoes
Post 2 |
Subway11 - I believe that he has a point. For example, the schools teaching evolution as the only theory in their science curriculum although 70% of families believe in intelligent design and creationism is not right.
The exclusion of an alternative point of view, especially one so well received as this one really points out the hidden curriculum of the school system.
This is not all; some schools go as far as teaching curriculum on how to use a condom in the sixth grade as a part of their sex education curriculum. Again this curriculum may be against parent’s religious and moral beliefs but the curriculum is taught anyway despite the fact that most parents are against it.
It seems that the political leanings of the school system supersede those of concerned parents. Gatto is right there is no sense of community in the school systems because of the fact that schools are making parents more irrelevant.
This is why I choose to keep my children in private school because in private school if the parent’s object to something in the school it usually gets resolved rather quickly.
Because parents are paying tuition their voices are heard more in a private school than in a public school. There seems to be a hidden curriculum regarding sociology in our public schools today that is taught from one point of view. |
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subway11
Post 1 |
In, “Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Agenda in Compulsory Education” John Gatto an award winning New York City teacher with twenty five years experience writes that the public school system robs our children of individuality and takes away from families.
He felt that the hidden curriculum of compulsory schooling is to teach students to be uniform and be devoid of original thought. He added that schools need to represent true communities that include families in order to strengthen a child’s education.
Instead he feels that public schools offer a conditioning that does not allow original thought because everything is based on the output of standardize testing measures.
He actually feels that there should be less emphasis on increasing these measures of extending the school day or provide schooling in the summer.
He feels that because the public school system is so bad for our children he totally understands why the homeschool movement has grown as quickly as it has because with homeschooling children enjoy a quality education because the parents are focusing on their needs.
He adds that the family component is necessary in the school system in order to build a foundation for a thriving educational community.
Gatto feels that the public schools are making the parents less relevant which further deteriorate the sense of community that the school needs. |
