ABSTRACT
There is a propensity for adults to form preconceptions about what is good for children, based on a rational view that there must exist a connection between what we as adults do in the way of solving problems and what children ought to do to become “like us.” This logic has merit in that it attaches us to the future by keeping us culturally and intellectually relevant in the development of our society. However, it has not produced much more than schemes or methods, which at best organize and reorganize the various subjects children are confronted with in school. This view assumes that children must learn certain skills before they tackle particular problems, and they are not allowed to pursue a problem until they have mastered the particular requisite skill. The value in sometimes having a more advanced context for understanding a rationally prior system like arithmetic, and the need to reveal uses children might invent for prior systems, are usually not considered in current curriculum thinking.
