#Philip jackson hidden curriculum how to#

“If you do that while I’m looking, I’m going to have to do something about it because you’re directly challenging my authority. In line with the last point, consider the implications of this admonition I remember hearing teachers say all the time: “Don’t let me see you do that again.” On the surface it just means “Cut it out.” But at a deeper level it carries the literal meaning of the words. Give teachers what they want when it counts

#Philip jackson hidden curriculum how to#

Toadyism: how to please authority servilityįormal compliance to authority is enough – you can fake it Knowledge as personal property sharing is cheatingĬompliance, obedience to orders, respect for hierarchy,

Individual achievement within a group (evaluation) Turn taking, suppressing egoistic impulses, patience, waiting, lines, deferred gratification, conformity. He explores what students learn from the classroom experience, whether we intend it or not His focus is on classroom processes, which are so commonplace that disappear from view - an effort to make the familiar strange again Students in elementary classrooms are continually subjected to: I’d love to be able to write this evocatively, bringing the familiar back to life. His writing evokes the daily experience of schooling in vivid and even visceral terms, such as the sounds (“clangs and hums”) and smells (“the familiar odor of orange peels and peanut butter sandwiches, a blend that mingles in the late afternoon (following recess) with the delicate pungency of children’s perspiration”). Of course his point is that in fact a whole lot of consequential is actually happening in school all the time. Ask a student what happened in school today and the most common answer is “Nothing” - that is, nothing out of the ordinary. He tells about how parents, teachers, and students are all so conditioned by the normal practice of schooling that it becomes invisible. Just read the first few paragraphs to see how a skilled writer can draw the reader effectively into an unfolding story. That’s a lot of learning time.Īnother reason I frequently assigned this essay is that it is beautifully written. In this essay, Jackson explores the lessons students learn from doing school 180 days year. Along the way, they may well be learning a lot more from classroom routines than from textbooks. But for students, process and content blur together into a single learning experience they know as schooling. The process of schooling is supposed to be designed to facilitate effective learning of these subjects. On the surface, schooling is an institution for teaching the formal curriculum - language, math, science, and social studies.

To me, it’s the best piece that has ever been written about “the daily grind” that students experience in elementary classrooms, which I often used in my classes. This post is a classic essay by Philip Jackson from his 1974 book, Life in Classrooms.