Elliot Eisner on Three curricula all Schools Teach

 A stop that I had while reading this piece was surrounding the point of having a school environment which enables students to become “mappers of their educational journey”(p.89). Creating this sort of environment would allow for students to be capable of pursuing their interests and goals following school, instead of just having academic knowledge. Thus they would have life skills as well as academic skills, to be able to be successful even if that isn't in an academic or school setting.

Another stop that I had was realizing the school scheduling has educational consequences for both students and teachers. It seems as though there are both positive and negative aspects associated with timetables for students. On the positive end it could teach students punctuality and how to be flexible cognitively to adapt to daily schedule changes and a new order of classes. I think these positive aspects are useful skills to have when kids leave school as they will be necessary in most real life situations. Whereas another consequence of the school schedule is that students may be reluctant to become too invested or involved in the material or activity because they know they will run out of time in the class. However, this could also teach them good time management skills. I believe the effect the school schedule has on the student, largely depends on the students personality. 

While reading my ideas about what is meant by curriculum expanded far beyond the meaning of curriculum as required material to be taught in a subject area. My ideas about what curriculum means expanded to, teaching behavior, initiative, punctuality, reward, deferring immediate gratification, and adaptability. 

The BC Curriculum connects with Eisner’s ideas in that the curriculum does not only include the subject material, but it also includes values and skills that are necessary to be successful in life regardless of if you carry on in school or not, such as critical thinking, initiative, a willingness to work hard without immediate reward. As well, the BC curriculum connected with Eisner’s ideas in the goal of making connections and extensions within the required material to other subject areas and real life situations. Thus, as teachers not only are we teaching math but also including art and science and history and so on throughout our curriculum.