Chapter 5 Notes

Baseball, debating, reading, and biology are all learned in school, along with love and tolerance, independence and frustration, mathematics and dramatics, values and ceramics, woodshop and poise, history and boredom, and computer science and leadership! Some are learned intentionally and others incidentally.

Whites and people of color, and many other groups grapple to ensure that their beliefs and perspectives are represented in the school's curriculum.

The language arts program seeks to develop in children the skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, as well as knowledge of culture as represented in literature.

Mathematics at the elementary level emphasizes the use of hands-on manipulatives to aid students in learning about patterns in mathematics and the base-lO system. Mathematical reasoning and problem solving, rather than the teacher's authority and the textbook, are emphasized. Teachers are being urged to focus on conceptual mathematics understanding before introducing procedural rules.

Science in the elementary grades takes advantage of children's natural curiosity about the world around them-plants, seasons, light, sound, and animals.

Two major questions drive science education reform: "Where will the next generation of scientists come from?" and "How can all students be prepared to make informed judgments about such critical and science-based issues as environmental pollution, energy sources, and biotechnology?"

Advocates of Civic learning or civic education call for courses that will acquaint a racially and culturally diverse student population with the heritage common to the American democratic tradition.

Students are given information on exercise and nutrition so they can understand how to balance caloric intake and maintain an appropriate body fat level.

Many health educators express frustration that health is not identified as a critical component of the K-12 curriculum and that questions about health do not appear on high-stakes tests. Because health is not tested, it is not stressed in schools as much as health educators would like.

The United States is number one in the world in one category-the size of the textbooks-which tend to be encyclopedic rather than focused. A telling example is this text book, where one chapter usually takes up about 30 to 35 pages on average.

The individual teacher, of course, is a major variable in what students actually learn.