The Sabertooth Curriculum

          After looking at the original publishing date of The Saber Tooth Curriculum the history minor in me came out and I began searching for allegories in the book with the world of the 1930s.  One that I came up with was when conservative members were resisting the education system on religious grounds.  I thought, hmm, sounds similar to the Scopes Monkey Trial of the 1920s with Evolution vs. Creationism.  One very obvious allegory I missed came up during class discussion the other night—hello, the dictator on the hill, the world on the brink of World War II. 

Aside from allegorical relationships, I found the book brilliant.  Peddiwell tells of the teaching field in such a timeless manner that even 80 years later, still rings true.  An initial curriculum is set up by New Fist in a manner that makes sure people of the Paleolithic time know what to do for survival.  As times change, the curriculum is adjusted.  But the curriculum is met with opposition and issues arise from there.  What stands out most to me is that New Fist’s goal was to create a population who was able to survive in the community—when we step back from standards and testing, that’s what we strive to do too many millennia after the Paleolithic Era. 

Machiavelli’s quote, “the end justifies the means,” to me says that despite whatever flaws might exist, a good outcome is ultimately the main goal.  I apply that quote into the education field and think of the constant changes we have made over time in an effort to better meet the needs of our students—whether it be fishing in New Fist times, learning Latin during the times of the Roman Empire, or learning how to thrive in an ever increasing globalized world of today.  The end goal, is a group who can keep the community going in an unknown world of tomorrow.   

            To the PICKLE concept, and many of the readings we have had thus far, I think about my instruction and the way a lesson occurs during my math class.  So much in math class is approached in the school culture, and not the real culture mathematicians approach problems with.  Yet we wonder why our students struggle and dislike math.  To them, it’s this abstract concept that makes no sense.  The students see no conceptual ties and relevance to real life.  That’s where I see the power of Project Based Learning.  With PBLs, we can have the students dive into an authentic problem and approach that problem from a different perspective than the typical classroom student.  I have been thinking a lot the past few days about ways to implement a good PBL, not one just to check a box.  One thing we discussed in class was that we did not have to approach all standards in a chronological way.  That’s a paradigm shift for most teachers—including me!  But I can see the power of that, put a piece of this standard here, a piece of another standard there, then go back and reinforce.  I suppose it makes sense considering little in life approaches you in a chronological manner.  You learn as you go.