Secret Garden to Public Street. Is there a Third Way?

Abstract

This article outlines a collection of key thoughts. It has fault lines throughout hut is meant to contribute to the beginning of a change in the way we consider curriculum. There is considerable and fundamental territory it does not attempt to cover. For example, I do not touch on the philosophical questions of whether the state has a role in prescribing curricular content and, if it does, the extent of that role. The title of the article was chosen to convey the sharp change which has taken place in the state's attitude to prescribing curricular content during the latter part of my working lifetime — indeed, the last twelve years. But it was also chosen to imply that I wanted to look forward in the light of changes in our society rather than backwards to some perhaps non-existent preferred ‘sgolden’ age. So the purpose is to raise issues. But I must start by challenging the adequacy of the present “public street” of a curriculum as I have called it. Before I do, one more disclaimer. I am primarily an administrator, not a curricular theorist for example. So this paper does not explore any of the issues it raises in depth. It is a start. So with those disclaimers...