#24

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The topic on this week's Behind the classroom door are from northern Illinois University's
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College of Education is the modern curriculum. Watch should it be.
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Here's the moderator Dean Robert after top curriculum
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has many meanings and it seems to me we ought to examine some of these meanings so that we
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can have some common understanding as we talk about it before we begin this discussion.
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It's my understanding that curriculum includes everything that the child
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experiences under the direction of the teacher.
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I think that is one of the most common definitions of
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curriculum. However recently there's been far greater out places upon
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trying to define curriculum in a way that the you could
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control your definition of curriculum.
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What about what about recess.
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What about the extracurricular activities
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curriculum is is of course the course of study and the
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subject matter and that the student is introduced to
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and is there a difference between the Elementary and the secondary line.
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Why think at the elementary school level we usually think of curriculum and experiences in
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reading writing speaking listening observation reasoning
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computing discovering creating and regard to
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recess.
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I would say in any experience that under the under the direction supervision of the teacher.
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But where are we when we talk about the formal curriculum are we referring to
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the courses the subject matter. Primarily we
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structure this so that children of all ages of
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cores are engaging in a certain type of study in certain areas.
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I think most people.
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Think of it in that way that for example it tends to be a course of study though it's only part of
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the curriculum which is often one part I think tricky a lot of towns to be
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defined more today in terms of all the learning
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experiences that are planned for by the school and under the
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supervision of the school that are designed to meet certain learning
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objectives.
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I know they have modified even the terminology for a while
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we used to say extracurricular activities and I guess it still used
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meaning in competitive athletics and school dances
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clubs that might meet after school and they changed that term from
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extracurricular to co-curricular.
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I don't know if they use it I don't but the idea here was that this what might be
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is important as a structured
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program in the school.
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I think the change of the term is very important because
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co-curricular map that these areas such as
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dramatics athletics
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speech were just as important in the school curriculum as.
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Latin and English other areas in
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fact many students who have gone through the schools. In
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retrospect feel that they may have learned more from some of the so-called
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extracurricular and I think we all look back on some of those.
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And this was one of the reasons for the extra our co-curricular activities
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or drama or something of this nature it was very important.
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Dr. Fox would you go so far as to include activities such as this would
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jar commonly a part of a school's program say the
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cafeteria the school lunch program which is maintained and supervised by the
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school. Say it's transportation where the school
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provides bus service for children can you see where this
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could be planned so that this would be a learning also be a learning experience for children.
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Yes Leo I think it can be but I don't think in some schools it is in fact.
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Again if you fall back to the definition that.
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In order to be part of the curriculum it has to be planned to meet certain
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educational objectives. And I think as school lunch program
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may meet that definition if within a school lunch program for
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example emphasis would be placed on the proper diet
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proper eating habits. If school lunch period however is
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completely uncontrolled or unsupervised and it
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is simply a way of providing lots of the people do not have to leave the
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school building then I do not think you could call that another
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words over a curriculum is that aspect that is controlled and
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structured and is directed at a certain set of objectives that are
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chosen in advance so that we we know they're good are as good as we
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can.
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Designed them and then we try to achieve those objectives through the
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experiences the youngsters have in the schools.
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That's right I think there still is great disagreement about the definition of curriculum
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because some of the writers Reagan for example in
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curriculum still defined curriculum as all the learning experiences
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of a child. And that would be on the playground within the school
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hallways and so forth. However that definition is not as
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functional as a definition that deed limits or restricts the
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meaning of curriculum to an area that you actually can work with either which you
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can plan that you can control that you can change it if it is not effective.
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Well a curriculum is really the lifeblood of the school isn't it it's the
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lifeblood of the program that the children and gaijin and therefore is very
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important. In the curriculum are poorly structured with gaps or where in some
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other way inadequate the children would suffer and perhaps seriously we
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know what would happen for example if if they missed a good piece
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of mathematics instruction along the way. How do we manage I
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wonder to keep it in order and keep it lined up and make sure we don't have
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gaps and repetitious ness.
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WHY IS THERE SOMETHING. Well I think one of the most common ways of doing us as
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a process that's known as articulation
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articulation simply means that the teacher is within a school all
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work together so that what is learned for example in a first grade
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is related to what is learned in the second grade and third and so forth
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so that you have a greater degree of complexity as a child was through the grades
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you have vertigo articulation which is a type i just mentioned plus
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horizontal articulation was very important between say an
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elementary school which is we'll assume sixth grade
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departmental ised and a junior high school which contains seven eight
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and nine and his departmental lies in the Senior High School which is
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the part analyze and then the big Joe the college i.e. I have a feeling
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that these gaps are these changes in the nature of the school
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are our critical points in the con con
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continuation of a good curriculum in most schools or what have curriculum
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guides to that would state their objectives for that particular level and many
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times the committees and methods of evaluation.
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So I think you'll find that most schools do have a sequence of
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programs set up.
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Well from what you have said I would assume that if a
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school system whose. Curriculum extends from
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kindergarten through grade 12 then would have a sequence of
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learning activities for all disciplines or all subjects and starting
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in the kindergarden and standing through the senior year of high school.
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Well is that the case. Take chemistry or physics for example
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which is commonly taught in the senior high school. What sort of basis would
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be laid for that in kindergarten.
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I think we all see a good example because as you go down
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into the grades and are like what happens to a discipline in other words doing
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specific subject matter a field that is studied is that you take a
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broad fields approach to that discipline. So that in the early
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grades the science program leads to the study of
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chemistry biology physics at senior high school level. And I think
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it's especially a good example because recent studies in the field of science have
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indicated that we have a very poorly articulated
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program in that area. It has been common
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up until the past few years just to stress only biological
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concepts within the elementary grades. There was botany
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maybe come into the picture. Some study of plant life and little in
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six cows we had very very little physics and chemistry partially because
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teachers of the elementary grades usually were required to have only
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the two sometimes three general courses of science at the
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college level I think there's a more fundamental reason that science is one of our weak
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spots particularly in the later elementary grades.
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And that is that most elementary school teachers are women. And our
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society tends not to cause young girls and women and
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subsequently to be interested in science. And there's quite a hurdle to overcome
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there it seems to me. Children are very interested in science especially
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in the fourth fifth and sixth grades. And unless this is capitalized they're not going
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to carry on this interest in continuing science the way they should.
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I think this brings in that it leads into the question of who should determine the curriculum
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in the saddle. And I know that this
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question has been answered in different ways through the years I member many years ago the curriculum was
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determined for example by specialists in the field and teachers had very little to
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do with it. And then I think for a number of years it was a trend for just the
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opposite to happen. You know teachers working together develop the curriculum for
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the school. And I've noticed recently recent years that now there seem to be more of a trend I
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think towards both. Working on the curriculum.
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I would like to go back a little ways here to where you
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mentioned the difficulty of primary great teachers with the
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teaching of science. I think probably the difficulty comes in that
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these teachers do not realize just what science consists of.
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Many of them have the idea that to teach science you must be involved and wires
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and electromagnets and batteries and test tubes and chemicals and
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things like that. Wow think of the opportunities that even a kindergarten
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teacher has in introducing children to biology and.
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Viewing birds discussing pets and so forth.
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Carrot care of these animals. It's a wonderful opportunity to
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lay the basis for the study of biology and zoology and so forth.
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No question about it and I think that good teachers and good
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textbooks by the way reading materials tend to bring this in and again we
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touch upon something that has an influence in the curriculum I believe textbooks.
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Have a direct impact on what is included in the curriculum.
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Of course you might say that teachers and the group that exist in the
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school districts also have an impact on what the textbooks shall be.
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But many school systems I have a feeling that the
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textbook. Is the most influential factor in
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structuring the curriculum.
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I think it is and I think unfortunately the textbooks vary
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so little that even when teachers select their own textbook there isn't
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that much of a choice some terms of what they're teaching. And I think in the area we
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serve most of the school systems employ a full time
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curriculum coordinator. You may have a title such as
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director of instruction or assistant superintendent charge of curriculum.
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However it becomes very important to achieve
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what Leo was talking about in the area of science or in any other field.
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To have someone look at the total curriculum and see a unified district from
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kindergarten through 12 to look at what children are doing in the first grade
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second third and so forth. And to bring in specialist
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to help the women for example who as you said may not be interested in
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science. Or to help people who have
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weaknesses in certain areas to understand what concepts should be covered in each
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grade. And as Lloyd said most of those schools would develop
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curriculum guides so the new teacher coming into the school.
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Would not be repeating what a teacher in an earlier grade
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has taught. I think a good example is the American Indian. It's been said
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that at one time in the state of Illinois you could go into any elementary
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school any day of the week and find at least one teacher teaching some type of
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unit of the American Indian. Even though within that unit you
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had far more fallacious or false information than
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correct information based on law or mythology rather than the.
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A factual account of the Indian in America.
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You know all is interlocking of curriculum guy and
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textbooks and teachers busy at their work concerns
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me with the need for curriculum change to keep pace with the times. You
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know we have even designed a term for it we call it
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education on lag because something that is needed
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by our society filters into the schools sometimes very
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slowly simply because of all of the interlocking complex
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machinery that is involved.
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The knowledge explosion today is so vast.
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The Norman content has become so great that it is impossible for and
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then the vigil a teacher or a child.
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To remember it all. And therefore the child.
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Must be taught to be a lifelong learner. He must.
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Learn how to draw on this information that he's a painter and use it in
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connection with the new problems and new situations in which he meets.
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Of course that's not to say that content is unimportant we must still emphasize
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content. The child must have it in an abundance but
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nevertheless he must learn to be an active learner who knows how
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to find out about scientific developments. Be prepared to
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meet the new situations and draw and draw upon this content which
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he has attained to to meet these problems.
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Well I'd like to emphasize again the importance of the of the teacher and
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the local school people in determining the content of the
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curriculum. Some people might think well we have a scientist why
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not have them determine a science curriculum for the elementary school as well as the high school
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level and we have sociologists and people why not have them
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determine the social studies curriculum so far. And I think it's very important that the local
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people who who know the local children they know the unique
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features of their own program and our own community they know they know let's say
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the characteristics of the learners in the schools and I think that's important so I think
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it's important we have a mix here of a specialist working with the local
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teachers in determining the quit the curriculum and content.
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You know there was a time right after Sputnik and all the concern about academic
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excellence that we made some serious mistakes I believe we
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started to force children into areas of
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learning for which they were not ready. We became a little bit hysterical
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then we had our youngsters trying to read when there is three years of age at home and
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many of them weren't capable of attempting anything that complex until
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perhaps seven years of age.
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And as far as content we push them ahead so far that they were losing what
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you mentioned Lio as important as this curiosity this inner
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desire to learn throughout their lives.
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Well I think we have gained a little more common sense about this now. We
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realize that children can learn only so rapidly and that they must take one
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step at a time.
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Besides that I think. An emphasis on facts
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gave American students the impression that a fact
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was true at the time it was taught and would always be true in an
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area such as science for example. Many facts that we were taught
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as facts actually are not true today. For example
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the number of chromosome is a human cell. I think all of
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us were taught forty eight. And of course for several years that number has been
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reduced to forty six by the development of
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instruments and enabling scientists to make a more precise count
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everything that goes up must come down and certainly been
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disproved in terms of what's happening in science recently.
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I think in every field it's possible to think of facts of the atom as the smallest particle of
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matter cannot be divided. That type of
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learning actually prevents an individual from experimenting in
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a field and some people have felt that the reason that our science program as somewhat
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leg behind rushes is that we were taught so many
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facts that students did not challenge such as the Atom not being
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divided. That it impaired their
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learning. Well today they have a far more emphasis spent on self discovery
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and the process of learning.
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Re the trend and curriculum today seems to be upon making facts and
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content something. That is relevant something
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that the student can draw upon that he can make use of it. It's not just
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something that he memory memorizes and stores away
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but it should be something that can be applied and tested in a new situation.
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I think so because the facts change but if the person learns a concept or the
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generalization even though the fact itself will change the concept can
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be transferred to another field. I would have to say that.
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Although I agree with Lloyd that the community should participate in learning
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in the field of curriculum so called reconstructionist who believe that
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instead of simply taking what society wants and what society has
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today and perpetuating that society that we should try to
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change society it's the obligation of the school to reconstruct
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society has considerable merit in some fields.
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For example although a great emphasis today is being given to get away education
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in a poor ghetto education. My feeling as some of the poorest education
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United States today is in rural areas and when the rural community
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determines education and that's still true in many schools.
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Agriculture for example may be a required subject or at least
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much of the money spent in industrial education especially for agriculture. Yet
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we have facts that the people who are growing up in rural areas
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by and large will not stay in the rural area and they will not farm.
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So I think you need the.
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Technical knowledge that professional knowledge added to what the community
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was you know that's one of the basic problems we really I don't tried to
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prepare children for life as it exists today. We're
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trying to look into some future time which perhaps none
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of us will see where they'll live entirely different lives
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because of the tremendous changes that are taking place
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sociologists in social conditions and also in science.
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And this is what makes it difficult and I think what you're saying Leo and Ray is that we
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want to get them ready for change. Rather than just have them accumulate
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facts.
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While this size change the task of the teacher where formerly the teacher
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was concerned with a child accumulating a group of facts.
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Today the teacher is interested in causing children to
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learn to learn or learning to be lifelong
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learning learners.
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Or you might say that the school is concerned with having children acquire the
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tools for learning so that they can do what what you were discussing.
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I think you put enough Mrs. Lee on a very key area and that is a d Zire for
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lifelong learning. I think when we put too much stress on
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accumulation of facts what often happens is when a course
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student has the attitude that thank heavens I'm through with physics and he means
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through with physics he wants nothing to do with physics again in his lifetime.
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Not all students but students who have had some difficulty in accumulating
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factual information. Certainly with the increase of knowledge
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occurring in the world today it's far more important for the child to learn
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skills that will enable him to be well-informed in
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each field including physics than it is for him simply to know all
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what is known about a particular subject at the time he studies it.
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You know one of the really exciting things about working with young
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children is a feeling you have that they are interested initially in
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everything. Life itself and its rod of sense and it seems to me
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that capitalizing on this interest is very important
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that we shouldn't let it die. And when interest fades. Let's say
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there is a boy who is deeply interested in science simply because he had a
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taste of it and he loses this interest for some reason or other that we have lost
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something for society and of course something for him to in terms of
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his enrichment of his life.
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You know all that. I agree with that very much and I think we should be
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far more concerned about studies that reveal there is no
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correlation or relationship between school grades and
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success in life which certainly tells us that much of what we're
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doing in a school seems to be removed from society and has
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little relevancy and terms of. Society today
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or in the future what we do in a school has to be meaningful
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to a youngster. And yet I think in most schools
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we teach certain subjects and certain units because we've always
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talked them and we feel that these are important.
[25:27 - 25:31]
They may be important but they may have very little
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meaning for many of the students in the school today from some of the
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things that have been said then I take it that we would agree that there's no such thing
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anymore as it is a national curriculum or a state wide
[25:47 - 25:52]
curriculum for children because this was something years ago when I first started teaching we were
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striving for a street a state curriculum we had state curriculum
[25:56 - 26:01]
bulletins or a course to study and then many people would talk in terms of a national
[26:01 - 26:06]
curriculum now that that's impossible that I think you have to
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define what you mean by a national curriculum in some way as there is a greater
[26:11 - 26:15]
need for a national curriculum the day than in the past because of the
[26:15 - 26:20]
increasing mobility on the part of the American children may attend
[26:20 - 26:23]
many different schools in their lifetimes however.
[26:23 - 26:30]
When you speak curriculum at the state or national level today most
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of the leaders in a state in a nation curriculum are looking at this as simply being a
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not prescriptive curriculum. In other words it's rather important
[26:39 - 26:44]
that all students will cover the same general areas
[26:44 - 26:49]
but the specifics of the area and how they're covered would vary
[26:49 - 26:54]
from community to community. So the prescription would come at the local level.
[26:54 - 26:59]
In the past the main tools of instruction for the teacher has been the textbook
[26:59 - 27:04]
and the blackboard and chalk and so forth. But
[27:04 - 27:08]
today with the emphasis on
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individualized instruction and the new technology which
[27:14 - 27:18]
makes individualized instruction possible. Schools
[27:18 - 27:23]
can provide rich an extensive learning resources through
[27:23 - 27:28]
films film strips sound tapes reference books
[27:28 - 27:33]
maps exhibits and other soft instructional materials.
[27:33 - 27:37]
This means that teachers role is changing
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to one of an organizer or manager of learning experiences.
[27:43 - 27:49]
That's quite a contrast to the past where the teacher was was a teacher of any subject
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matter field in the future therefore it would be possible
[27:54 - 27:58]
for the teacher to create a differentiated curriculum for each
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child.
[27:59 - 28:05]
Well it seems to me we have hardly touched on the complicated matter of the
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curriculum. We recognize and agree I believe that
[28:09 - 28:14]
how to learn is probably more important than facts because we want lifelong
[28:14 - 28:19]
learning. We recognize that the curriculum is the heart of the
[28:19 - 28:24]
program for the learner. And we sense that we need to meet the
[28:24 - 28:28]
needs of the future. And that sometimes these needs are not even
[28:28 - 28:33]
discernable at the time we are planning the curriculum so we try to prepare the
[28:33 - 28:37]
child to adjust to whatever the needs may be.
[28:37 - 28:42]
Beyond the classroom door produced by WFIU and
[28:42 - 28:47]
cooperation with the College of Education at Northern Illinois University each
[28:47 - 28:51]
week focuses its attention on one of the many challenging aspects of public
[28:51 - 28:56]
school education. The program is moderated by Dr. Robert F. top
[28:56 - 29:02]
dean of the College of Education at Northern Illinois University. Today's guest were
[29:02 - 29:06]
Dr. Raymond B Fox associate dean at the College of Education. Dr.
[29:06 - 29:11]
Leo Laughlin head of the Department of Administration and services and Dr.
[29:11 - 29:16]
Lloyd Leonard out of the department of elementary education. Next week's
[29:16 - 29:20]
topic will be the role of teachers and special personnel in the
[29:20 - 29:25]
schools. This program is distributed by the national educational radio
[29:25 - 29:26]
network.