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Curriculum
La Escuela establishes high expectations and has a specific set of standards
for all young children that enter our program. We believe that all young
children are always "ready to learn" and just need the opportunity and guidance
to have this principle become a reality. Our school follows the
Core
Knowledge Sequence, which is an academically challenging curriculum that
begins in preschool and continues through the eighth grade. Their organization
has studied the many reports that have been issued in recent years describing
the current nature of early childhood experiences for most American children;
they examined important new research in cognitive development and how children
learn; looked at specific preschool and elementary practices in the U.S.,
including well-known models like Montessori, High/Scope, and Creative Curriculum;
and then they surveyed the educational practices of several other countries,
including France, Japan, Korea, and Italy. The resulting curriculum represents
a synthesis of exemplary educational practice and experience, both in the United
States and abroad.
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Carnegie Corporation addressed this issue in its report, Years of Promise:
A Comprehensive Learning Strategy for America's Children (1996)
"This belief [in difference and uniqueness] is simply wrong. When it is applied
to whole groups of children on the basis of language, race or ethnicity, it is
not only wrong, it is racist. The fact is that differences among children
predict little about what they will be able to achieve, when they have the
right motivation, attention and support . Overcoming dangerous myths about
children's aptitudes ... means expecting all children to master the same
ambitious content while recognizing that individual children will progress by
different routes and at different rates."
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"If we truly want our children to know about and appreciate many cultures, then
we need to teach explicitly and specifically about different cultures, and teach
them in a way that broadens children's perspective on the world and its
diversity. The Core Knowledge curriculum does just this. Beginning in preschool,
children are exposed to literature, art, and music selections from many cultures.
Likewise, history instruction introduces children systematically to cultures,
races, and religions throughout the world. We strongly recommend that anyone who
has a question or doubt about whether Core Knowledge represents a multicultural
perspective obtain a copy of the Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence and the Core
Knowledge Sequence, K-8, examine the curriculum, and judge for him or herself."
From the
Core
Knowledge website.
Core Knowledge
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"[C]hildren who attend well-planned, high-quality early childhood programs
in which curriculum aims are specified and integrated across domains tend to
learn more and are better prepared to master the complex demands of formal
schooling... "
? from Eager to Learn (2001), National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
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La Escuela's curriculum is based on the Core Knowledge movement. The following
Questions and Answers come from the
Core Knowledge website.
- What is "Core Knowledge"?
The "Core Knowledge" movement is an educational reform based on the premise that a
grade-by-grade core of common learning is necessary to ensure a sound and fair
elementary education. The movement was started by Professor E. D. Hirsch, Jr., author
of Cultural Literacy and The Schools We Need, and is based on a large body of research
in cognitive psychology, as well as a careful examination of several of the world's
fairest and most effective school systems. Professor Hirsch has argued that, for the
sake of academic excellence, greater fairness, and higher literacy, early schooling
should provide a solid, specific, shared core curriculum in order to help children
establish strong foundations of knowledge.
- Is the specific academic content in the Core Knowledge curriculum developmentally
appropriate for young children?
There are certainly some topics that are too difficult for most young children to grasp:
for instance, nobody would teach astrophysics in first grade. But there is no reason why
first-graders cannot begin to learn basic information about electricity and the human
body, or about ancient civilizations like Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Too often, unexamined ideas about what is developmentally appropriate and inappropriate
are used to keep youngsters from acquiring important and exciting knowledge at a time
when they are eager to learn.
Using specific content guidelines, teachers can deliver such content in developmentally
appropriate ways: for example, instead of lecturing to kindergartners about the seven
continents, they might sing songs, make paper-maché globes, cut out continent-shaped
patterns, or make charts with animals that inhabit each continent.
- Since knowledge is changing so rapidly, isn't the best approach to teach children
to "learn how to learn," rather than to teach specific knowledge?
"Learning how to learn" is an admirable aim but a misleading slogan. If learning is to
proceed on any principle besides random chance, then schools need to follow a carefully
sequenced body of knowledge. Children learn new knowledge by building upon what they
already know. It's important to begin building foundations of knowledge in the early
grades because that's when children are most receptive, and because academic deficiencies
in the first six grades can permanently impair the quality of later schooling. The
most powerful tool for later learning is not an abstract set of procedures (such as
"problem solving") but a broad base of knowledge in many fields.
- What about the argument that in curriculum, "less is more"? Should schools avoid
trying to cover a lot of content, and instead focus on helping students master a few
areas in depth and detail?
The slogan "less is more" has tremendous appeal, and there are situations in which we
can learn more when we are confronted with less and allowed to investigate specific
issues and questions in depth and detail.
But ? particularly in the elementary years ? it does not follow that deep knowledge
of a few things is better than broad knowledge of many things. In fact, one needs
both ? both deep knowledge and broad knowledge. To help children gain breadth of
knowledge is to help them lay the foundation on which they can build new knowledge,
including more in-depth, specialized knowledge. The best time to acquire broad general
knowledge is in the early years, when children are most curious and receptive. In these
early years, the idea that "less is more" is misleading and even potentially damaging,
especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who may be left behind while
some advantaged students acquire a desirable breadth of knowledge at home.
There is, however, one sense in which "less is more" does apply to elementary education.
This sense is not in opposition to broad and rich knowledge, but in encouraging
selectivity about the way in which broad and rich knowledge is chosen. Educational
planners need to take on the responsibility of selecting a rich core of important
knowledge, defined in an explicit sequence. It is this particular sense of "less is
more" that informs the process of selection and consensus-building that went into
the Core Knowledge Sequence.
- Who decided the content of the Core Knowledge Sequence? And what right do they
have to tell others what they should know?
The content specified in the Core Knowledge Sequence represents a broad consensus of
diverse groups and interests, including parents, teachers, scientists, professional
curriculum organizations, and experts on America's multicultural traditions. Provisional
versions of the curriculum were reviewed and revised by panels of teachers. In March 1990,
the curriculum was further revised by almost 100 people, of diverse backgrounds and
interests, attending a national conference sponsored by the Core Knowledge Foundation.
- Students don't learn from rote memorization of isolated facts. Is your curriculum
merely a bunch of facts, ignoring the development of critical thinking skills?
Those who think that the only way to teach specific content is through rote memorization
would be astonished to observe the many imaginative, resourceful, and creative ways
that teachers in Core Knowledge schools have found to engage their students in active
learning of important knowledge: through dramatizations, art projects, writing workshops,
collaborative learning groups, research projects, etc. Yes, children may occasionally
memorize a poem or the Preamble to the Constitution?but these are valid learning
experiences, which, in fact, children enjoy, and from which they get a sense of pride
and achievement.
No one wants schools to think of curriculum solely in terms of facts. We also want ?
and students need ? opportunities to use the facts, to apply them, question them,
discuss them, doubt them, connect them, analyze them, verify or deny them, solve
problems with them. All these activities, however, rely upon having some facts to
work with. Without factual knowledge about an issue or problem, you can't think
critically about it ? you can only have an uninformed opinion.
For more information, please visit the
Core Knowledge website.
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