The Blake Curriculum
Reprinted from "Parent News"
October, 2001
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One of the least well-understood words in the world of education is curriculum. Its earliest etymology can be traced to the Latin curricle, meaning a course, as in a race course, or a (race) chariot. Many know the term curriculum vitae, which means literally “the course of one’s life,” but is generally taken to mean a brief history of one’s career. In schools, curriculum is often understood as the course of study and includes both the content of the courses and the skills developed in the process. It can become confusing, however, when schools talk about extra-curricular or co-curricular activities and programs. While I prefer a broad and purposefully flexible definition of a school’s curriculum that includes all the planned experience that a student has as a member of the school community, I shall focus for now on the narrower view of curriculum, one which describes the scope and sequence of the classes at Blake, the content of these courses and the skills to be imparted.
In the opening lines of Dickens’ “Hard Times” the perfectly-named schoolmaster, Thomas Gradgrind, speaks to his students of the facts. “Now what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.” This is NOT our approach. At Blake, I trust, we have no Thomas Gradgrinds. The curriculum, or course of study, is much broader than an assemblage of facts, though mastery of content is very important. There are several documents which describe the Blake curriculum. The first is a single sheet of paper measuring approximately 20” by 25” (55 centimeters by 63 centimeters if you’ve mastered the metric component of the curriculum) that sets forth in a simple matrix the disciplines on one axis (mathematics, language, music, etc.) and on the other axis the 14 grade levels at Blake (prekindergarten through grade 12). Each cell on the matrix has a half-dozen or so items listed. Grammar first appears in language arts in second grade and continues forward throughout the next eight years. London’s “Call of the Wild” is listed in grade seven, and in grade 10 the students read Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.” Fractions first appear in mathematics in grade one, medieval history in grade seven and content-heavy electives are found throughout the offerings in junior and senior year. This single sheet is annually updated and available to you from any faculty member, divisional office, my office or the Web page.
This is, however, just one means of representing the curriculum. Blake also has what we call “sketches” of each course. There is a sketch for music in second grade, science for seventh grade, world cultures in ninth grade and BC calculus. These sketches have a nomenclature and symbolism that we developed as a faculty to allow us to represent on a single page not just the content of each course and the skills to be developed, but also the means of assessing the progress on the part of a student and the unifying themes. Anyone outside of the faculty might need assistance in interpreting these sketches, but parents and students are welcome to review these course sketches (the whole school’s set is a binder that exceeds 100 pages). Some of you may have received copies of these sketches at “Back to School” nights. They are invaluable tools for faculty new to Blake and they also allow us to trace threads of continuity in the 14-year sequence of study. As with the single curriculum sheet, these sketches are updated annually as our dynamic curriculum evolves and is fine-tuned.
Finally, each of the school’s three divisions has its own curriculum guide or course of study publication written to present the curriculum in the Lower, Middle and Upper School in a manner consistent with the divisional approach and level of developmental sophistication. These, too, are available to you. It is not that we try to make this more complicated than it needs to be, but representing the curriculum of this school, that central occupation of 1,250 students guided by 150 teachers over a 14-year span, cannot be easily reduced. A thumbnail sketch is as incomplete in its representation as it is impossible to create.
The Blake curriculum is actively discussed among the nine program teams who provide “vertical” integration (math from pre-kindergarten through grade 12, music from prekindergarten through grade 12), at the divisional and grade levels where we discuss “horizontal” integration (how the various elements of sixth grade fit together) and at the Curriculum Committee (chaired by Mike Downs) where we see how the whole fits together. It is in discussion at the Curriculum Committee where we make sure that changes, such as the move to teach biology in ninth rather than tenth grade, is right for the school. It is also where we make the necessary adjustments in other areas of the curriculum that are occasioned by such shifts (we dropped certain topics in Middle School science and added others as a result of the shift to ninth grade biology). This particular change in science began as a discussion among Upper School science teachers, was debated within the Upper School faculty and administration and finally came to the Curriculum Committee for approval, having received widespread support.
A focus on curriculum is one of the main school-wide agenda items this year. The Board of Trustees will spend a great deal of time learning more about the curriculum and the process involved in its oversight and change. As a follow-up to the ISACS report, we are examining elements of the curriculum that range from an examination of foreign languages to teach and when and how often they should be taught to possibly increasing the minimum number of credits necessary for graduation.
The very notion of curriculum eschews stagnation. The Blake curriculum is demanding but also compelling. In our “singularly unself-satisfied” manner we are always trying to make what is good and successful even better.
John Gulla
Head of School
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