What is "Curriculum"?

What does the word mean? To some it just means what textbook are you using. Usually that is the easiest way to define what our Curriculum is. I would like to share with you 5 other definitions of the word curriculum:

• A course of study (derived from the Latin "currere" meaning "to run a course")
• Course content, the information or knowledge that students are to learn
• Planned learning experiences
• Intended learning outcomes, the results of instruction as distinguished from the means (activities, materials) of instruction
• All the experiences that students have while at school

I really like that last definition. All the experiences. When I was a teacher, some of the best time to learn was in between classes or while at recess. As a teacher and educator, we must look at four different type of curriculum.

• The explicit curriculum - what schools list and document as their teachings through course work and school activities, including goals and aims, courses and lessons, knowledge, skills, and attitudes
• The hidden curriculum - the behaviors, attitudes, and information that schools many unintentionally teach students such as outlooks toward authority, ideas about "success," and internalized beliefs about works righteousness.
• The null curriculum - what schools do not teach or make available to students including certain courses (such as anthropology or architecture) as well as certain outlooks, attitudes, and beliefs (such as concern for assorted social issues or political perspectives)
• The co-curricular program - already acknowledge in the explicit curriculum above for schools who view curriculum in a holistic way; but sometimes distinguished from formal classroom work. (Consider whether or not you want to make this distinction.)

As a Christian school we must have essential Biblical imperatives.  We must blend intentionally faith and Scriptures into our daily lives.

Source: Planning for a Lutheran High School, The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. 1997.