Politics of Curriculum: Origins, Controversies, and Significance of Critical Perspectives

I know that education and schools are very political. I don’t think they have always been that way and as a teacher I was we could go back to the old days of education. Teachers have to avoid touchy subjects so that the administration doesn’t receive any complaints about what was taught at school. This makes me wonder why the government doesn’t regulate even more when it comes to what we teach at schools (NCLB was a bad attempt but I guess a start). I find it very sad that we as educated teachers can’t teach whatever we want, because we teach to a test. We have to teach to a test to make sure our school gets funding. If we don’t get funding then special programs and classes will likely get cut and then teachers will lose their job. I could be wrong but I don’t think teachers taught to a test 40 years ago and the vast majority of students turned out just fine. I am not saying that standards and tests are a bad thing but I think there is way too much emphasis placed on them. I love the idea of developing the curriculum involving the students. I know the ideas presented in this articles are just ideas or principles but the concept behind them is very strong and I would like to see them implemented in a real life classroom and see what happens.