Schools change, teachers change, students change, times change, everything changes, so what do we have that might bring us all together, help us embody the best ideals of our heritage, or form us into a united people who uphold the true, the good, and the beautiful?  

At the Classical Latin School Association, we believe that education is, in large part, training students in the liberal arts and contemplating the best ideas that have ever been written or thought. Though all might change around us, our curriculum can remain the same, anchoring our educational pursuits and experiences and shielding us from the temptations of the new and the novel. 

Curriculum—from the Latin verb curro (“to run”)—is to a school like a race track is to a race. Curriculum is not education, just as a race track is not a race. But though the runners change, the speeds change, the attendees change, or the weather changes, as long as it takes place in Boston, it’s still the Boston Marathon, and those who complete the Boston marathon join an honored fraternity of runners. A good curriculum achieves this same goal. A headmaster ought to view his or her curriculum as the course of study which allows a student to join the citizenry as an able, virtuous, and fully formed person.

This series of articles will ask 12 questions of curriculum. These are questions that you ought to ask when assessing your school’s curriculum to know that the course your students follow will truly take them where they need to go. 

Categories: Exordium

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