Curriculum

The educational system prevalent in our country is molded in such a way that mainstream studies always come way above extracurricular activities. The unfortunate truth is that over the years at some point of time we all have experienced this dilemma, but just to remain in the mainstream we all have blown out that little spark within which could have become a massive fire.

I remember my studying days, the knowledge of any concept was all about a “definition” that we used mug up from the books, but conceptual knowledge was missing. It was because the education is subject based and according to syllabus.

Our few commercial mainstream cinemas such as “3 idiots” and “Taare zameen par” have tried to represent this bitter truth about our prevailing educational system aptly. Such type of movies has left a significant impact on our hearts and has impelled us to give a thought about our existing educational system.

When I watched these movies I relate myself with so many incidences which brought tears in my eyes. I saw myself in the place of that small, afraid, nervous child “Ishan Avasthi”, who is trying hard to come up with the pressure of school, society as well as the parents, to learn every subject, to write properly, and to solve each mathematical problems as it is given in the books. Nobody was concerned about spending some extra time to know what he is good at, what are his interests and caliber, what he can achieve other than marks and grades and prove himself.

Sometimes, I do think that, “What if our inclination towards education would not be like this? What if my teachers and parents also had given some extra time to recognize my field of interest & what I am good at in that early age?” Then, I could have also become something else, may be an artist, but definitely more confident in my childhood and more successful and prosperous in my present.

 

 

According to me what’s lacking in our prevailing educational system is a balanced curriculum which not only focuses on the notebook learning, but also considers child’s psychology and all round development.

For overall nurturing, we need to understand the caliber and interest of an individual child and develop a set of activities that not only impart required academic knowledge, but also enhance child’s physical strength, social, emotional, moral understanding towards their environment. And, this set of activities is what we call as curriculum designing.

Moreover, not only the framing of appropriate curriculum is necessary, but its effective implementation is also equally important. In simple words, I should say we all need teachers like “Nikhumbh sir” of taare zameen par, who gave that extra time, put little extra effort to understand the psychology of Ishan, acknowledged his area of interest and showed confidence that yes I know he can do this.

 

When I thought of writing on curriculum, I started reading books and surfed over net regarding the topic where I found so many definitions from different philosophers on curriculum and out of them I picked up the most famous one that is written by – Canningham. According to him “Curriculum is a tool in the hands of the Artist (teacher) to mold his material (students) according to ideals (aim and objectives) in his studio (educational institutes)”

My mentor told me that Urvashi, “If you are writing anything on topic, then you should write your own views over it and then it will be your original one, and I realized that I should be fair towards my thinking about the topic ‘curriculum’ and should write what I feel is right and required.

So, as I analyzed this famous definition, I found it incomplete and irrelevant. And, the reason why I am saying so is because “How can a teacher mold a child according to his own ideals?”

Firstly, a child is not a material. He/she is a human being having his own psychology and unique personality and secondly, a teacher’s ideals may not fit in the development process of an individual student. Therefore, according to me the curriculum should be carried by teacher keeping in mind child’s overall development and social benefits out of it.

The person a teacher is molding should be developed to fulfill his own aims and goals for welfare of the society as well.