10. Methodologies for Curriculum Design

The goal of a good education is to prepare a student for their life. A traditional education focuses on the knowledge that students should learn during their years in school in preparation for the student’s life after schooling. The curriculum for this kind of education focuses on content, textbooks, and memorization. This made sense in an age without computers and connectivity, but with the internet and smart phones and powerful search engines, we need to reconsider what schools need to be teaching. Simply, the role of the human has changed. The skills we used to learn made us into computers and automatons.

In today’s world, society does not need human computers nor human automatons. The world needs human connectors. People that can connect ideas to create new ones. People that can connect two conflicting groups of people and help them come to an understanding. People that can connect other people together to do something bigger than either could have by themselves.

This is especially true in a world where most people are glued to their screens and are born with technology encompassing their entire world. Kids don’t spend time playing with other kids anymore. They spend time playing with a smart phone, with tablets, with computers. Gradually, as technology continues to take over, there will no need for anyone to speak to another human for basic human needs. That means nobody is being forced to interact with other humans for the practice of human engagement. That’s why schools need to be be providing the opportunities and environments needed to develop effective human connectors that can make things happen in the real world. Essentially, the skills we need to learn now are how to become more human.

In the following chapters, I want to share three curriculum methodologies that I really like and believe should be more strongly integrated into schools around the world.