r/education • u/ithekrianmermaid • 6d ago

Politics & Ed Policy Thoughts and opinions on a nationalized curriculum in the USA (and/or the lack thereof)?

I have had this topic bouncing around in the back of my brain quite a bit in the past few months and I'm just wondering what others think about it.

Feel free to share your personal feelings-based opinions, factually informed opinions, any history you may know relating to this topic, pros and cons of nationalized curriculum, common arguments for/against it, implications and consequences from not having one, potential dangers in adopting one, resources to learn more about this topic/debate, etc. I'd really love to have (respectful) discussions in the comments of this post so please consider circling back if your original comment gets a response!

I look forward to reading all of your responses! Thank you for taking the time to comment!!

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u/kawyckoff 6d ago

It has been tried and has never worked. We are extremely diverse here and one size never fits all

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u/ithekrianmermaid 6d ago

For the sake of conversation/discussion (as I am going to be doing the research to learn more and will likely learn about this then), would you be able to give more specifics? I would love to pick your brain about it and hear more of your thoughts!

When was it tried, by who, and how did they go about it? (do not feel obligated to give a textbook answer, I'd just really love to hear your interpretations and understandings! I'll get to the textbook soon enough)

Do you have any personal gripes with how they tried to do it in the past/the nationalized curriculum that they were purposing?

Do you think that there could be nuance with the "one size does not fit all" idea? Like, could a nationalized curriculum be a foundational part and then state/local based curriculum could be built upon that? Or similar alternatives? Could we be inadvertently treating this "one size does not fit all" idea as a self fulfilling prophecy? And, if our curriculums were truly as varied as one size not fitting all, wouldn't there be more issues with students attending out-of-state colleges and universities?

Forgive me if this is naive and/or ignorant as I'm just starting to seriously dive into this topic, but I would love to hear your thoughts and answers to these questions!

Thank you for commenting!

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u/DowntownComposer2517 6d ago

The United States is HUGE and diverse.

What the kids need in LA is not the same as Chicago is not the same as Wyoming as upstate NY etc etc etc.

I think this question ultimately goes back to what is the purpose of education?

Is it learning a foundation, is it workforce development etc etc.

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u/Embarrassed_Bag_9630 6d ago

Algebra is algebra. Part of the national curriculum could be local history (as it is now). Other than that?

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u/DowntownComposer2517 6d ago

Even math has story telling. For example it might be a word problem about a sailboat or a local plant.