The Law and the Curriculum

Abstract

Since schools exist to convey to youngsters certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes deemed necessary to help them develop as individuals and become contributing members of society, the learning experiences afforded children under the aegis of the school are a paramount concern of government. In the United States where the state is the governmental unit responsible for education, it is the state legislature which has the authority to regulate the curriculum. In regard to what must be taught and what must not be taught the power of the state legislature is plenary, so long, of course, as individual liberties protected by the Federal Constitution and its Amendments are not denied and prescriptions of the particular state constitution are observed. In some states there are myriad statutes pertaining directly to the curriculum; in others there are relatively few detailed laws. To varying extents in different states, state boards and state departments of education are granted authority in curricular matters by the legislatures, and they too operate differently in regard to specificity of curricular regulations. The local board of education is the legal body most closely associated with what is taught to boys and girls. An agency of the state (as differentiated from the local) government, it has the responsibility for conducting the schools in its district within the framework of the state constitution, state statutes, and the state board of education's regulations. Curricular changes, particularly the addition of new courses or activities, usually have originated on the local level. State statutes for the most part have followed rather than preceded curricular innovations in enterprising local districts. In the pattern, a local school board, convinced of the educational merit of a proposal, puts it into effect in the absence of a statutory prohibition. If the idea proves sound, it will be adopted by other local school boards. Eventually this typical curricular change might be put into a permissory state law and possibly into a state requirement. Frequently a new item is challenged in the courts as an ultra vires act of the board or one involving improper use of tax money, thereby depriving the taxpayer of property without due process of law. In an overwhelmingly large percentage of such instances the courts, as pointed out later, have upheld the considered actions of local boards and paved the way for general acceptance of once novel elements in the curriculum. Examples include kindergartens, music, domestic science, modern languages, physical education, and thrift as well as the now firm pillar of public education-the high school. *A.B. 1944, Johns Hopkins University; A.M. 1948, Teachers College, Columbia University; Ph.D. I950, Columbia University. Associate Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. Author, THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR AND SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES (1951); co-author (with Willard S. Elsbree), STAFF PERSONNEL IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS (1954); contributor to various educational periodicals.