Oct 13 Reading Reponse to Elliot Eisner on Three curricula all schools teach

 Two or three 'stops' you have in this article

Eisner raised the question "Do schools teach children to compete, and do they encourage competitiveness? "(p.91) I personally don’t think schools are explicitly "teaching" students to be competitive, but the norm and structure of the school make it a miniature version of the society. In society, no one will "tell" you that you are in competition, and it is an assumption that we are all competing against one another. In high school,  courses are graded and scaled on given standards. In society, we are competing for different job positions and power. In general, competitiveness is not fostered by school, but schools provide a platform for students to experience the competitiveness in a smaller extent. As Eisner stated, perhaps it is better for students to have learn to cope with the competitiveness in school before they step in the real world.  

I also agree on the Eisner's affirmation on "schools teach far more than they advertise". Schools are places for learning to take place, but they don’t limit to knowledge needed to graduate. Schools also teach children how to become fitted members of the society. Most importantly, schools aim to help children develop the ability to solve problems and think critically.

Ways that this might expand our ideas about what is meant by 'curriculum'. How does the mandated BC Provincial Curriculum connect with Eisner's ideas?

Curriculum are academic contents that teachers have to teach in a specific course or program. Eisner referred to this definition as explicit curriculum. The explicit curriculum clearly states what knowledge has to be taught to the students in specific courses, and they are standards that teachers have to follow in teaching. However, there is also the implicit curriculum which "teach a host of intellectual and social virtues including punctuality, a willingness to work hard on tasks that are not immediately enjoyable, and the ability to defer immediate gratification in order to work for distant goals can legitimately be viewed as positive attributes of schooling" (p.95). The mandated BC Provincial curriculum connects to Eisner's ideas of explicit and implicit curriculum. Although the BC curriculum aims to prepare students for entrance into universities or society with the academic knowledge and skills required, there are limitations to what the curriculum and schools can offer simply because teachers don’t teach everything in life. It is up to students to incorporate and utilize their learnings from school and apply them in real life circumstances.