Curriculum lag
This text is part of: "I would never send my kids to school" by Piotr Wozniak (2017)
Definition
Curriculum lag is the delay period by which (1) the content of the curriculum trails behind (2) the knowledge needed for the progress of mankind. The delay may span decades, and it worsens the negative impact of schooling on the adaptation of youth to the modern world.
Tyranny of curriculum
The basis of perfect education is the exposure of the brain to target environments. A child of a pharmacists exposed to a life in a pharmacy is likely to develop efficient adaptations to become a pharmacists. Exposure to the knowledge of the web may provide all necessary ingredients to find an optimum fit in the on-line world. A surgeon may feel cumbersome in protective suits during the times of pandemic. His adaptation to new life may take just a few days. In those few days, he will perfect all procedural and cognitive skills needed to fit well into the new role. The brain is a perfectly adapting device.
The power of exposure is largely ignored by the school system. Instead of exposing a child to a life in a pharmacy, the school will begin with the teaching of the alphabet and numbers (in abstraction of child's needs). The basics will be followed years later with the memorization of drugs, their names, formulas, dosages, etc. In the process, the entire knowledge valuation network is set upside down and blunted. The love of learning and the love of life are extinguished. Metaphorically speaking, education is a bit like gold prospecting. Instead of searching for gold, the child starts from memorizing the components of a shovel. The theory of the shovel may turn out useless when the sieve appears more fit for the job. Instead of riding a bike, the child is supposed to learn about the structure of muscles and the optimum sequence of their activation. That theory of bike riding is obviously preposterous to everyone. The idea of the curriculum is not. It has stayed rigid and unmovable for centuries.
For a metaphoric explanation of the curriculum problem see Mountain climb metaphor of schooling.
Curriculum lag
If the curriculum is written by 40-55 year olds, it is heavily biased for knowledge content carried by the curriculum from 20-50 years before. This phenomenon is recursive, and produces a lag effect in which a curriculum in the year 2020 may still be polluted by knowledge that was applicable a century ago. Many countries gave up compulsory teaching of cursive. It is still compulsory in Poland. Recently, I discovered that the capital F in cursive in Polish curriculum looks completely unfamiliar. I have no recall of learning that letter in my childhood. I have no recall of ever encountering this letter in my life. What is worse, I was not able to tell the letter. It looks like a cross between T and F. If anyone asked me, I would say the letter does not exist! If six decades of life of a seemingly knowledgeable PhD guy produces no memory of an interaction with the cursive capital F, why is it required form little children as compulsory knowledge?
The entire field of mathematics is evolving fast, for example, with new applications of machine learning. Yet the math curriculum today is not much different than the curriculum in the 1950s. Mathematical calculations on paper seem very important, yet few people employ them today. They should never be compulsory. When I tried to recall long division, I could not (20 seconds of trying). I did not forget. I practiced it for long hours as a child. However, in adult life, I probably never used the skill. I may be able to divide numbers in my mind: less precision, better speed, and much better applicability. Calculators are as ubiquitous as paper. Long division is just one of the dino skeletons that never seem to die in school textbooks. Just for fun, I tried to re-learn it and it was just about 2-3 minutes of this video. Sadly, I doubt I will ever use it. Unless for show.
Once we free schooling from the tyranny of the curriculum, we can hope to shed the ballast of the old and bring forth the importance of new solutions. There is always a risk of new trends ditching some old values. However, in the increasingly improved access to knowledge and the prospects of the semantic web, the old good solutions will not die. They will just undergo a healthy darwinian process, and can always be revived once they provide tangible advantage in specific contexts.
The lag has a powerful negative impact on mental health of the young generation. On one hand in increases the stress associated with the sensation of time waste at school, on the other it leaves graduates woefully unprepared for success in life.
Curriculum research
The problem of detaching the curriculum from the unpredictable needs and interest of each individual child is compounded by the curriculum lag.
Reams of research went into the problem of time lag in the curriculum. When OECD commissioned a report (Education 2030), the conclusions were staggering, and eye-opening:
Barnard identified time lag between the need for action and decision and between decision and execution, resulting in three stages: “1) delay in recognizing the need for decision; 2) time required in making it and 3) time necessary for promulgating and incalculating it”. Barnard (2003) argues that processes such as curriculum renewal processes, because of their democratic character, are inherently slow
With not a minute of research, every child's brain knows the effective solution to the problem of the lag: freedom to learn. Curriculum can be an inspiration to be ignored. Every child must develop his own learning trajectory (i.e. not a curriculum). Only then can she keep up with the time and look for innovative solution to running her own life. Until this basic truth is realized, we may waste millions on the problem of eliminating curriculum lag and its detrimental impact on development intelligence, and adaptation. The simplest surgical cut to solve the entire problem is to end compulsory schooling. Once children are free to make their own decision, they can consider or ignore the curriculum. Most likely, they will ignore. When did you last read any curriculum? I do it often because it is part of my job. I review in order to mock. The whole idea of curriculum is an anachronism. I do promote Advanced English for SuperMemo only because core English vocabulary is relatively stable. A ready-made collection is like a curriculum that provides a fast shortcut to speedy knowledge. However, the best approach to learning English is to resolve bottlenecks of efficiency. In that, Advanced English can only be a crutch while the mission critical effort will still rest with the student and his free learning approach.
Cyprian Kamil Norwid
Unless you live in Poland, you have no idea who Cyprian Norwid is. Many schools are named after the guy. Every city has a street named after Norwid. The guy is a classic national treasure. He is also very important for my story of the curriculum lag.
Darek is a high school second-grader. He confessed that half of his class is threatened with retention in Polish literature. He explained that everyone is now studying Cyprian Norwid in a hurry. Norwid was a poet representing Parnassianism. He was not appreciated in his lifetime (mid 1800s). His major works were published a century later (Vade mecum). He did not change history. Does pushing Norwid on children help his reputation?
No heroic name of history deserves the honor of stressing the whole host of young people at school. All students have an incredible range of interests that get stifled by the stress of grade retention. Their lives are now consumed with a single poet who is largely unknown beyond our Polish population that makes 1% of the global cultural mix (0.5% of the world population lives in Poland). When writing those words I realize I did not even import any Norwid basics to SuperMemo. I try to learn everything about this world (an impossible task), and Norwid did not even make a mark. Yet poor kids have it as a compulsory subject.
When I asked Darek about the role of Norwid, he scrambled to recall some details and mumbled some incoherent claims that I cannot even reproduce. For a while, a smiling kid turned into a scared schoolboy who struggled with his memory trying to recite a couple of well-crammed phrases. This is the kind of schoolboy who sends his teachers into rage. His whole intelligence, amiability, versatility, and personality evaporated in seconds. He would stand shaky and sweaty in front of the classroom and make teacher wonder why she wastes her life on the "wasted generation".
I asked Darek why Norwid was important in Polish history. I did not get any answer. In a follow-up, I asked several adults about Norwid. My non-scientific poll says that everyone knows the name, most of people recall that Norwid was a poet, nobody can make any coherent claims on the role of Norwid in history, and everyone claims "I hate Norwid and I am sure everyone hates Norwid". Curriculum lag that might have lasted from the decadent times of "Young Poland" (1890-1918) is turning a creative artistic mind into a figure of hate. The only source of that hate is coercion and lack of comprehension. To understand and appreciate Norwid, you must be a Norwidologist. Perhaps you can give it a try: Mother Tongue.
For a sculptor or poet to achieve greatness, she needs to be given creative freedom. If we want more Norwids, we need to let them free! Norwid himself completed only four years of school. School is destroying the kind of unappreciated talent, which it tries to elevate.
I like Shakespeare because I was never forced to read his works (esp. not in the original). However, as much as Norwid, William is a frequent object of hate among students of English. If you want a quick summary of what youth thinks of the great poet, see this video. Incidentally, the video is a 5 min summary of my Problem of schooling. You can save a lot of time. Instead of wading through a thousand pages of text, you can get it all in a 5 min capsule.
For a few details on my own "love" of literature see: Why I do not read fiction.
Further reading