Researching Curriculum
I have recently been asked by a number of my readers to help them know what kind of curriculum their child needs. The editor of Aletheia has not indicated that a volume of this size (it would take a thousand pages!) will be available for my column, so allow me to refer you to several good sources: The Educated Child: A Parent’s Guide from Pre-school through Eighth by William Bennett is perhaps the best laymen’s source on the market. The bibliography gained from the works cited is worth the price of the book itself. It is written from a conservative, canon view. By canon, here, I mean those traditional model studies which have been recognized by scholars (italics mine) as having true educational merit in the liberal arts education. Another excellent source of information which is culled from years of research is the Core Knowledge Series by E. D. Hirsch. The common titles are What Every Kindergartner Ought to Know through What Every Eighth Grader Ought to Know. These books (one for each grade) provide step by step instruction to parents on what to look for, what to ask of the school, its administration, and the child’s teachers. It too, is a conservative education view.