I got into teaching to make an impact. I wanted to prepare my students for what may lie ahead. When I started teaching, I thought I would make a lasting impact upon my students by teaching history.
While I originally thought that simply teaching history would make an impact, I have come to realize that for educators to truly make a difference in our students' lives we cannot rely upon a traditional curriculum.
With the crises we face and an every changing world, it is critical that we reassess what we are teaching. We must examine what it takes to prepare a student for the challenges they will face. We must challenge our students to think. To be able to be presented with a difficult challenge and develop a solution. If we are to prepare the future leaders of this world, we must supply them with the skills to think abstractly. To do that we must reevaluate how we design our curriculum. No offense to the proponents of a traditional curriculum, but that ain't gonna solve global warming.
This video, found by Antonio Viva, is from Rutgers University. Rutgers has developed a New Humanities program. The core of the program gets at what I was mentioning. They have developed a curriculum that is built upon the principle of making students think about "the biggest problems our time". Now that will make an impact. That will prepare our students for their future.
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