Myths about the ‘What’

What can possibly happen in the world of education that hasn’t already happened? What still needs to be done? People have been thinking about the curriculum for centuries, dating back to at least as far as classical antiquity, with its liberal arts. These liberal arts, which served as the prototypical basis for the western curriculum, were first mentioned by Cicero, but it’s not clear when they were actually formulated. ¹ It should also be remembered that the model of the seven liberal arts (Grammatica, Dialectica/Logica, Retorica, Aritmetica, Geometria, Musica, and Astronomia), with which we are familiar today, is of more recent origin. These basic educational building blocks remained in the curriculum throughout the Middle Ages (5th to the 15th century) and the Renaissance (between the 14th and 17th centuries), although they each gradually acquired a different content in the process, varying from region to region, particularly as the use of the local language gained in importance. ² Under the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827) the curriculum was also extended to include matters that went beyond language and mathematics, with the aim of more closely depicting the world in which the student behind their desk existed. What was that world really like? ³