ABSTRACT
What is PSME? In its broadest sense it is everything we can possibly conceive of, whether in our learning or in our teaching. At its best, it is a curriculum that accepts that ‘the closer you get into your own nerves, the closer you get to what’s universal’ (Chambers 1986); and that the closer you get to the universal, the closer you get to your own nerves. It is a curriculum that accepts that the internal and the external are yoked together, and that our understanding of one goes in pace with our understanding of the other. (I would insist that we can’t learn without teaching, but suspect that is a story for another time and another place.) Admittedly, some subjects seem to fit best in the ‘personal’ part – creative writing, painting, to take two examples – while others fit best into the social part – geography, say, and history. But in fact, all subjects fall into both parts. How can you consider a tribe living in Australasia, or in Ancient Greece, without considering yourself and your place in the world? How can you write or paint without thinking about everything that is around you?
