Eisner

I think Eisner's analysis of the implicit and null curriculum outline a lot of changes that ought to be made in one's conceptualization and implementation of curriculum.

Implicit: In the first half of the paper Eisner illustrated the implicit consequences of schooling and how in a lot of ways these, as they are now, can harm childrens' ability to learn. In particular he spends a great deal of time talking about how we teach compliance instead of critical thinking and how this is connected to the values of structured schooling such as in well-known universities and other post-secondary institutions. As these sorts of institutions are dis-proportionally accessible to higher classes and give explicit merit in black and white intellectual capital this reflects schools' roll in systemically privileging people whom are already privileged. Something like a public school system should be designed as to help all students grow and learn such that they can use their competencies to engage with life and meet it's challenges.

One interesting thing that stood out to me was Eisner's use of sociological criticisms of technology as a metaphor with schooling. He also mentions how the arts are undervalued and efficiency and economy are the core values behind the design of current schools. In a society where technology is rapidly changing how we access content and how much labour is needed as we reach further automation there needs to be a shift in how we wish to use human capital. Soon we will reach a time where not all humans will need to work, or at the very least the work force will look very different, and for that reason Eisner argues that there needs to be a change in what we teach both explicitly and implicitly.

Null: This section discusses the consequences of neglecting to teach certain things within schools. In particular, the rigorous scheduling requirements for "core subjects" such as the Sciences and Language. When schooling is overly prescriptive then the implicit values of economy and efficiency compromise place for other values, such as art.

The new BC curriculum's aim appears to be to adopt similar ideals, looking to replace the intrinsic curriculum with inquiry and critical thinking and also trying to bring in multi-dimensional teaching settings in an effort to incorporate the arts within traditional subject matter. I think that some of the critiques raised by Eisner, such as precise scheduling, rewarding and expecting complacency, existence of extrinsic awards, among others, could be better addressed with further adjustments to this inquiry based curriculum.