KNOWLEDGE AND THE CURRICULUM

Curriculum has been seen as the development of the mind through academic knowledge. Discuss.

One of the oldest education traditions is the liberal tradition that goes back to the Ancient Greece (400BC). Liberal education regards knowledge as important for its own sake because it is supposed to contribute to the development of the mind. It is called liberal because it is supposed to free the mind from ignorance. Liberalism is the philosophy that advocates maintaining the freedom of individuals from outside restraints. It is characterised by a belief in the fundamental goodness and the rationality of humankind, and a belief in continuing change as a means to perfect the order of things.

Epistemology deals with the possibilities and limits of human knowledge. Epistemology means "theory of knowledge". It is derived from the Greek episteme. meaning 'knowledge' and logos, which has several meanings including 'theory'. Basically it tries to arrive at a knowledge of knowledge itself. It is also a speculative branch of philosophy and tries to answer such questions as: Is the world as people perceive it the basic reality, or do people perceive only appearances (or phenomena) that conceal the basic reality? What are the boundaries between reason and knowledge, on the one hand, and what some thinkers call the illusions deriving from metaphysics? What is the basis for knowledge? Is it observation, experience, intuition or inspiration? Or is there some other basis? Knowledge is not one of a kind for there are three different types. The first type is knowing that which is the knowledge of facts. Secondaly there is also knowing how, which is the knowledge of skills (that is knowing how to do something). Finally there is the knowing by aquaintance which is knowing by recognition. That is one is able to recognise something familiar.

Knowledge may be regarded as having two parts. There is the mind and the senses. Plato distinguished between what is mental and intellectual to what is sensual. In Platos allegory of the cave, there is a contrast between the world of the senses and that of the intellect. Plato believed that what we learn through the senses cannot account for knowledge because the senses give us illusions. If we rely on the sense we are just perceiving a shadow of the more perfect order. Platos system of philosophy was based on the concept of unchangeable and archetypal Ideas, of which the world's objects or appearances are mere approximations. The greatest of these Ideas was the Idea of the Good. The quest for the Good would ultimately lead man to harmony with the state and the universe.

The liberal tradition is based on the idea that experience doesnt give us true education because education is knowledge. On the other hand experience doesnt give us knowledge. In fact in Greece at the time of Plato, mental work was regarded ad that of free people while manual work was that reserved exclusively to inferior beings (slaves, foreigners and women). To a certain extent, this idea still goes on today. People still think that academic subjects are more important then technical ones. For example maths is normally given more importance than physical education. All in all, liberal education reflects a prejudice towards the mind, the mental, the abstract, the intellectual and the theoretical.

Opponents of Plato have claimed that the ideas were nothing more than the names people have attached to the objects they perceive. Names of individual objects and of classes of objects are merely ways of organising perceptions into knowledge. Thus people see one animal and they decide to call it 'cat'. All similar animals are called 'cats', and a whole category of animals is thereby named without any reference to external ideas or forms.

Some 18th century British philosophers, the empiricists, made a sharp division between the mind and everything else. The most radical of these teachers, David Hume, carried this division to its logical conclusion and declared that it was impossible to prove the existance of the world. Everything know, he said, depends on perception, but perception can never get any evidence outside itself to verify anything. Real knowledge, in his eyes, became completely impossible to achieve.

Immanuel Kant met the challenge proposed by Hume by saying there was a real world. Its underlying nature cannot be known - only the appearances of everything (which he called phenomena) can be perceived. Humans, however, impose a form of reality on the world by the way they organise their thoughts about it. They thus impose an order on their world through categories created by the mind.

However other people disagree with the statement given that the curriculum is the development of the mind through knowledge for other reasons. For one thing, this view does not take into consideration the hidden curriculum. The hidden curriculum can be described as those things that the pupils learn through the experience of attending school, rather then the stated educational objectives of such institutions. Thus the curriculum in this definition is not encompassing all the aspects of learning in the classroom setting but rather one specific narrow form of learning. Not all educationalists agree with Plato and the importance he places on academic knowledge. For example John Dewey argued that the job of education was to encourage the individuals to develop their full potential as human beings. He particularly stressed the development of the intellectual potential. Schooling for all would help foster the physical, emotional and spiritual talents of everyone, as well as their intellectual abilities. Dewey also believed that people should learn by experience, by doing things rather then being told. In this way, they would not just gain the knowledge but would develop the skills, habits and attitudes necessary for them to solve a wide variety of problems.

Ivan Illich goes even a step further proposing very radical views on the education system. In 'Deschooling Society' (1971), he argued that formal schooling is unnecessary and indeed harmful to society. He regards schools as repressive institutions which indoctrinate pupils, smother creativity and imagination, induce conformity and stultify students into accepting the interests of the powerful. According to him, education should be a liberating experience in which individuals explore, create, use their initiative and judgment and freely develop their faculties and talents to the full.

There is much more to education then transmitting knowledge. Education is not just about knowledge, it is far more complex then that. For example a good educational system would help reduce inequality, by developing the potential that exists withing all human beings and not placing too much importance on only one particular aspect of education. In the 1960's in the USA Lydon B. Johnson stated: "The answer to all our national problems comes down to a single word: education." (as cited in Bowles and Gintis 1976 pg 19)

The curriculum and all its components is definately one of the most important factors in the development of the student. However, politicians in some countries have too much power on the curriculum when they themselves could have a legal background other then an educational one. Besides politicians being scared to take desicions that could influence their votes, they also like to leave their mark on the system because they think short term considering their stay in office is only temporary. Thus I feel that we should consider these factors when we are discussing the curriculum and the emphasis it should place onto particular aspects.

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