Curriculum Is The Secret

What is curriculum? The word comes to us from the Latin, meaning ‘a running, course’ from the word ‘curro, currere’ meaning ‘to run’. So, in an academic setting, curriculum is the path along which we guide a mind. It’s the sequence of facts, principles, experiences, and exercises through which a student is led, and the objective of curriculum is to cultivate within the individual an understanding of the subject matter and the powers to apply that understanding toward a desired end.

Curriculum is a path of development, and well-crafted curriculum offers a smooth, efficient, enjoyable experience to the student. But no matter how pleasant the path, we’re climbing a mountain, and each individual has to put in the work to reach the peak. No teacher, no curriculum, no methodology can carry the student to the top, the effort must be their own. Education is earned, not given.

With this in mind, however, the very best curriculum should be meticulously engineered so that the student need only apply strong, consistent effort to achieve the understanding and abilities that lie at the end of the course. Unnecessary obstacles, rambling paths, and any other inefficiencies should be removed so that each unit of student effort yields maximum progress. The work invested by the student should produce pleasant epiphanies and the process should feel good, satisfying, rewarding.

Now, in due balance, we must also hold space in our curriculum for students’ natural curiosities to unfold. We must allow young minds to explore what new and unfamiliar things may resonate with them, and moreover, we must help facilitate and enhance this process of exploration and discovery. The

explanation of an idea or the giving of a fact rarely kindles a flame in the mind; it is the question that enlightens. It is the question the compels thought. And it is the derivation of the answer to that question by the sweat of the student’s own brow that begets a depth of satisfaction within them. It’s the satisfaction of solving a little puzzle, of fitting two data points cleanly together to draw an accurate conclusion.

Now, since the question is more powerful than the answer, as it is the question that begets the answer, and it is the question therefore that enlightens, then the strongest curriculum would be composed essentially of questions. This is the Socratic method. Furthermore, a curriculum filled with questions, rather than texts to be read and regurgitated, stimulates much more engagement from students. When presented with a question, students may know the answer, in which case they become eager to share. Or they may know a little bit about the topic and wish to offer what they have, which when compounded across a few students may in fact produce the correct answer. Or perhaps no one knows, in which case, everyone is now curious to hear the answer, attentive, engaged. Furthermore, follow-up questions may spiral off the first, sparking a small discussion – but after a little foray into the unknown to establish context, we set our eyes back upon the curriculum’s main vein. We always return back to the main path to finish our course.

Continuing in our theme of balance, good curriculum keeps us focused. It’s easy to wander and stray from the path sometimes, allowing our curiosity to excitedly tug us from point to point, but we have a job to do. The path has been laid before us, and it’s upon us to reach its end. As we walk, however, we naturally pass other paths branching off of our main quest, intellectual side-streets along the way that may or may not pique a student’s curiosity. Again, questions may arise and should most certainly be explored, at least a little bit, but we always return our focus to the main path and press forward. This approach,

facilitated by sound curriculum, empowers curious students to explore while ensuring progress is still made. Curriculum is a running, a course, and we must see it through to the end.

When we think of curriculum, we typically associate it with a classroom, with academic coursework, but curriculum exists in every arena of human development. Anywhere coaching or training or a striving toward improvement exists, there too can exist curriculum. A classic example of this is in youth athletics, where a coach must take an initially unskilled child and cultivate within them the skills of their sport – ideally to a mastery of the fundamentals. And it is here in the fundamentals where curriculum
is most potent.

Take for example a youth soccer team, the youngest age group. Children first need to develop core skills like dribbling, passing, and shooting, the fundamentals from which everything else flows. They need to develop good habits to generate good muscle memory, the right body mechanics to produce maximum force and control, and the right place on the ball to strike with the right portion of the foot to make the ball move the right way. These innermost, hardest-core fundamentals are effectively the same
for everyone. If neither Child A nor Child B have ever played soccer before, they’re both starting at the same stage (zero) and need the same fundamentals. It is only after good fundamentals have been established, a solid foundation, that a player can then build and create their own unique playing style tailored to their unique body and their unique personality.

Now then, if Child A and Child B are both starting at zero and need to learn the fundamentals from scratch, there must exist a way to teach both children such that they both grasp the new ideas and skills quickly and pleasantly. There must also exist an optimum sequence in which to introduce those

ideas and skills that accelerates the athlete’s development most rapidly. Furthermore, there also naturally exist synergies between skills, overlaps, which when focused upon can establish two or more skills simultaneously per unit of effort invested. The highest ideal then is a curriculum that comprehensively addresses every fundamental idea and skill, in the optimum sequence, with maximum synergy. And then, the experience should be as fun as possible. Such a curriculum would be maximally effective, maximally
efficient, and beautiful. And if this curriculum were focused in specific on the deepest fundamentals, those to be instilled before any individual specialization, then that curriculum would also be universal.

Such a powerful system, of course, doesn’t just magically appear, nor is it created overnight. It’s crafted carefully over time, over countless iterations, innumerable tweaks and tightenings and polishings often across several years. As a truly spectacular curriculum is shaped and formed, it’s tested over and over again along the way, and it is this perpetual testing that informs improvement. If all students or all athletes are equipped with the same skills and ideas from the same curriculum, any gaps or weaknesses in
that curriculum are quickly revealed during a test – as well as strengths. Based on this feedback we keep consistent what is producing strong results, then focus our attention on the gaps and other points of improvement. This way, little by little, test after test, year after year, we perpetually improve until there are no gaps and everything is strong; complete. Then we get better still.

So, in any realm of human improvement a curriculum can be established to accelerate development, to help our efforts generate maximum progress. But how then is that curriculum discovered or formed? How do we derive that optimum sequence and discover all the synergies? The most effective, efficient, beautiful way is to allow the student to show the teacher. Allow the child to reveal to you the innerworkings of their mind. Ask them about their experience, then listen. Take their feedback to heart;

implement it; test it. Children possess a wisdom rooted in innocence that we lose access to as we grow old, and so if we old would be wise, we should learn from the children.

Now then, when we put together an initial curricular sequence, because we have to start somewhere, we should be ravenous for feedback. What results did it produce? What was the student’s experience like? What was good and what can be made better? What do we wish we had, or had more of, and what do we wish we didn’t have? The objective results produced by the implementation of curriculum are a natural effect of that curriculum’s causing, and these results directly inform us where our content and or sequence can be modified for improvement. This is cause and effect; nature. The student’s experience, however, how this process and those effects feel to the individual, we can only learn from the student. Thus, it is this combination of natural consequence and student feedback that refines the ideal
curriculum. The curriculum must be wrapped around both nature itself and the mind of a child if we seek maximum efficacy.

In light of these ideas, perpetual refinement of curriculum becomes the way. Better each year than the last, ad infinitum. This, however, creates a bit of a paradox. Perpetual refinement, continuous improvement, is similar to the distillation of alcohol or guaranteed uptime in the computing world: we can never reach 100%. We can get to 90%, then 95%, all the way to 99.9%, then 99.99%, 99.999% – but we never reach 100%. We just chase 9’s into infinity, with each 9 an order of magnitude more difficult to achieve than the previous. Paradoxically, it is this never-ending game that keeps life fun, that ensures

there’s always something greater to strive toward. But the goal at the end of the day is twofold and relatively simple: greatest possible outcome for least possible input, and the best possible experience.

Now, with all this said, if curriculum is the secret to success, what then is the secret to crafting excellent curriculum? The subconscious. The subconscious absorbs and stores absolutely everything we experience with unimaginably perfect detail. As such, the ideal curriculum caters to this level of precision even if it isn’t initially perceived by the student. Their mind will perceive only what is it capable of at the time of introduction, but lying in wait, deep within their subconscious, will be the wholeness of the
idea. And when the day comes that the student is ready, they will one tap into that depth and receive the fullness that has been there waiting for them. The curriculum must be crafted from this perspective, from the perspective of the omniscient subconscious and its perfect attention to detail.

Then, if all this can be accomplished in the curriculum – comprehensive, optimum sequence, maximum synergy, best experience, tailored to the subconscious, and improved every year – what we ultimately achieve is the acceleration of human development. Imagine a world where any skill, knowledge, or ability can be acquired in little time and with little effort. Imagine what the quality of life for each individual can become. Imagine what new and good and beautiful things can be created, how much farther we could progress as a species. This is the power of curriculum.

In all of this, however, we’ve saved the most curious phenomenon for last: If we truly succeed in creating this ideal curriculum, this immaculate path to knowledge and skill and ability, the teacher fades into obsolescence. Perfect curriculum teaches itself.