Curriculum Connections

from Maria Harris, Fashion Me A People: Curriculum in the Church Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville. 1989. d.d. 68-69

THE THREE CURRICULA THAT ALL SCHOOLS TEACH

Principle 5: The curriculum must take into account three forms: the explicit curriculum, the implicit curriculum, and the null curriculum. In The Educational Imagination, Elliot Eisner points out that all institutions teach not one but three curricula. The explicit curriculum refers to what is actually presented, consciously and with intention. It is what we say we are offering, what is in our table of contents, or in church bylaws or pastoral constitutions.

The implicit curriculum, in contrast, refers to the patterns or organization or procedures that frame the explicit curriculum: things like attitudes or time spent or even the design of a room; things like the presence or absence of teenagers on our parish councils; or things like the percentage of church revenues we give or do not give to people who are less fortunate. Within the curriculum of community, for example, in a church that has a drama group, the explicit curriculum might be that the group is presenting Godspell. The implicit circumstances that lead to casting: who gets what part; the confidence or lack of confidence of the performers; the personality of the director; whether all the major parts are for men or, for that matter, for women.

The null curriculum is a paradox. This is the curriculum that exists because it does not exist; it is what is left out. But the point of including it is thai ignorance or the absence of something is not neutral. It skews the balance of options we might consider, alternatives from which we might choose, or perspectives that help us see. The null curriculum includes areas left out (content, themes, points of view) and procedures left unused (the arts, play, critical analysis). The implicit curriculum, in contrast, does not leave out areas and procedures. It simply does not call them to attention. They are there, operative in the situation but left unnoticed.

More than twenty years ago Tony Trujillo, then of the Waterloo CDSB and on behalf of OCSTA, headed up the Catholicity Across The Curriculum project. This later developed into the Catholic Curriculum Cooperatives that we have today.These Catholic Curriculum Cooperatives have put significant time, energy and money into producing "explicit Catholic curricula", the least significant and least effective of "the three curricula that all schools teach."

At Forum, and with the help of Father Crosby, we will begin/continue the process of taking back "teacher/parent/administrator/priest autonomy". We will engage in doing theology as we recognize the need for contemporary theological renewal in order to animate ourselves, and engage our students, our children and our parishioners.

It is time to rebalance. Teacher-proof Catholic curricula that presumes a top-down, pre-Vatican II delivery system to a pray, pay and obey lay staff to students who are seen but rarely heard (and then only to parrot catechism answers) does not work. It does not invite nor inspire, either student or teacher into an adult community of faith that is the Catholic school, family and parish.