Everlasting Curriculum

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Everlasting Curriculum

Let us replace the contents of our nation’s education vault by throwing in our bubble sheets and test scores and pulling out the Great Books of the world. This belief is the cornerstone of my educational philosophy. As a teacher, I hope to develop a perennialist classroom, where the enduring truths take priority over grades and tests. The term “perennial,” which comes from the Latin word for “everlasting,” fits my curriculum perfectly, for the Great Books contain ideas and concepts that have always been and forever will be essential to understanding our world.

As an instructor of secondary English, my task to promote the Great Books will be simple. I can choose novels from a list of hundreds of classics that have persisted over time. I am very exciting about sharing books that I love, like The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Voltaire’s Candide, with my students. My mathematics and science colleagues will have more difficulty, though. They will be forced to reeducate students who have learned by example into a curriculum that focuses on theory. Here lies another reason that I champion the Great Books philosophy: students learn from an epistemological standpoint, and therefore see for themselves how concepts originated. I believe that knowledge is absolute, and perennialism gives a basis for my claim. The Great Books have provided us with the answers to our questions, we only need to discover the truths for ourselves.

I do not agree with the ideas proposed in A Nation at Risk. This document puts too much emphasis on tests and competition. Its principles establish the basis for essentialism, the “back-to-basics” approach to education. This me...

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...ipline methods dependent on each case.

In sum, I am very excited about beginning my teaching career. I cannot wait until I am given a classroom of my own. I love perennialism and will base my classes around it; the Great Books philosophy encompasses all the reasons I have ever had for wanting to become a teacher. I also love games, riddles, and word puzzles which I will use to make my lessons more interesting. Sadly, many of today’s young people do not recognize the names Milton, Defoe, and Twain. This is a problem I want to fix. The Great Books curriculum is forever changing. I predict that, within the next twenty years, the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien will be added to the Great Books list. This list is so impeccable that its content have been deemed everlasting, just like the knowledge I hope to instill in my students.

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