Dear Undergrad History SecEd Cohort,

Time flies! Weve all been teaching for two years now and its amazing to see how far weve all
come since stepping into the classroom for the first time. We studied, learned, and experienced
a lot in our undergrad program and now I feel that Im on a new aha journey as I pursue my
Masters (and I know theres a few of you going through this now too!). My most recent aha
moments have come from my curriculum development course Im taking this summer. These
moments have both built upon former ones as well as been completely new. As we continue to
grow as educators I feel like we also should continue to share our aha moments with each
other.

One of my biggest aha moments came while reading Elliot Eisners thoughts on different types
of curriculum taught in schools. One of these types mentioned was Null Curriculum. As I
continued reading about Null Curriculum, I realized how many of those curricula could fall under
our content area- Social Studies/Sciences. We have all been certified to teach Social Studies,
but if we look closely, our certifications only cover the traditional Social Sciences: History,
Government, Geography. Were only initially certified to teach those subject areas, yet as
History majors, we were required to take courses in Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology,
Economics, and Geology. We all have a little background in these subject areas, yet unless we
took extra examinations, we dont teach it. Many times the schools we work in dont even offer
courses that cover those subjects. So my thoughts were How can we as Social Studies
teachers include these Null Curriculums into our History/Government/Geography courses?,
How can we bring the Null Curriculums into our Explicit Curriculums?, and How was it
decided that History/Government/Geography were the 3 subject areas of Social Studies that
were to be taught? Since reading Eisner, Ive already started brainstorming lesson ideas in how
I can include these Null Curriculums in my Ancient World and US History classes this coming
school year (like explaining the economics of supply and demand for the need of westward
expansion or how behaviors that we deem abnormal could have been normal in an ancient
civilization) and I challenge you all to try to do the same.

Another aha moment was when reading Philip Jacksons The Daily Grind in the Curriculum
Studies Reader. When I read the line ...the fact that young people have to be in school,
whether they want to be or not. In this regard students have something in common with the
members of two other of our social institutions that have involuntary attendance: prisons and
mental hospitals it made me stop and think about my time as a teacher but also as a student
(Flinders, Thornton 2013, p.121). Most of us became teachers because we liked school and we
were good at school, mastering both the explicit and implicit (hidden) curriculum taught to us in
school. How can we then relate to our students who dont feel the same way about school?.
How can we as educators help those students learn when they dont like the setting theyre in?
How can we make students want to come to school and not just because they are required to
do so? I dont feel like there is one answer to any of those questions, but I do believe that my
personal teaching philosophy - that in order to get our students involved in what we are
teaching, we need to show how what they are learning is connected to their lives and how their
lives have been influenced by what theyre learning (especially in History) - is one key way to
make school feel less like a prison to those students who dont love school in general. Another
is making sure we include a variety of alternative curriculums (like electives and vocations) and
include experiences outside of the school setting. By doing that, we allow students to shape a
unique educational experience that can give them freedom with how they learn, which can help
them actually enjoy school.

I have many more thoughts on what Ive learned so far in this course that Id want to share with
you all, but these are the two major moments that have stood out to me. Both can be tied to
different teaching philosophies and it is very interesting to see how we are still debating and
discussing these same philosophies for almost a century. My coworkers and I have discussed
how education philosophies and policies seem to be on a pendulum and that whatever we are
doing in schools now will change back to a former version as the pendulum of education
swings back and forth. Will we always be trapped in this pendulum? Or will our generation of
educators bring about a more permanent change based on these philosophies that have been
studied and repeated for generations? When we graduated from our program we were told that
we are shaping the future of our world, so we need to continue to learn more about our
profession and content to continue helping our students and future students reach their full
potential.

Keep being the awesome teachers I know you all are!

Amy Maroudas-Peters

References:

Eisner, E. (1979). The Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs
(3rd Edition). Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Flinders, D. J., & Thornton, S. J. (2013). The Curriculum Studies Reader (4th ed.). New York, NY:
Routledge.