Hidden Curricula in America's Schools

Recently, many theorists and educators have been talking about a concept first coined as the "hidden curriculum" by Benson Snyder (Wikipedia, 2006). That is, educators began to discuss what was being taught beyond what was explicitly taught: they were talking about the hidden messages in the way teachers teach and in the way schools are run. Theorists agree that there is a whole body of material students are learning besides the curriculum, lessons involving how to function in the school environment, what will be expected of them by society, and what their place is. Although Snyder's book, The Hidden Curriculum, was first published in 1970 (Wikipedia, 2006), there is much more literature that has been written and continues to be written identifying individual elements of the hidden curriculum in different contexts. This paper will first examine Snyder's definition and discussion of the term "Hidden Curriculum" and then discuss three examples of other authors' perspectives on the particular hidden curricula involved in different contexts and environments.

The first title of Snyder's book, The Hidden Curriculum, is titled "The Two Curricula" (Wikipedia, 2006). He was the first to expound on this fascinating topic. The idea of two curricula is the idea that through formal schooling, students are not only learning the three Rs, but also something else. The idea is that the way we teach and the methods we use have a profound impact on students, almost as much of an impact as the actual content of the lesson. Snyder states that there are "less obvious tasks" that we are asking students to perform (Snyder, as qtd. in Wikipedia, 2006), tasks other than those involved in mastering educational objectives. He says, "These covert, inferred tasks…are rooted in the professors' assumptions and values, the students' expectations, and the social context in which both teacher and taught find themselves" (Snyder, as qtd. in Wikipedia, 2006)." Snyder then suggests that the hidden curriculum may be one reason why many students, even those who are highly intelligent, may fail to do well or drop out. Snyder talks about the stress of performing in school, the risk of being cut down by professors for even minor mistakes, and the importance of knowing how to do schoolwork rather than knowing the material being taught (Wikipedia, 2006). Lets look at some examples of how this hidden curriculum that Snyder discusses transpires.

In a 1993 review of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, Samuel Blumenfeld remarks:
No one in America today is better qualified to report on the true condition of our government education system than John Taylor Gatto, the now-famous educator who spent 26 years teaching in six different schools in New York City and quit because he could no longer take part in a system that destroys lives by destroying minds. (Blumenfeld, 1993, 1)
How did school "destroy minds?" Gatto explains how he came to this thinking. Although he had been taught by his professors that some K-12 students were simply more intelligent than others, he noticed that those who would normally be placed in the less intelligent category

kept demonstrating to me at random moments so many of the hallmarks of human excellence - insight, wisdom, justice, resourcefulness, courage, originality - that I became confused . . . slowly I began to realize that the bells and confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think, and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior. (Gatto, qtd. in Blumenfeld, 1993, 6)

Gatto defines his somewhat radical hidden curriculum, those things he believes are being taught by the culture of compulsory public schooling, as the following seven items. Firstly, says Gatto, public schools teach confusion. Confusion is taught because of the disconnected nature of both school and family life. School is divided into many different subjects that are not integrated in any way and usually have little to no relation to the student's own life. Family life often involves disconnected overworked parents who are in no situation to remedy the problem, but only add to the confusion. Secondly, school teaches class and hierarchy through unnecessary competition. When everything is a competition, students soon come to see what rung of the ladder they are on or where they belong compared to everyone else. School teaches indifference by requiring students to drop what they are doing whenever a bell rings, and emotional dependency by showing them they need the teacher's stamp of approval to feel good about their work. It also teaches intellectual dependency in that we are made to believe that only the teacher knows what is important, what is worth studying, and what type of work deserves praise. Those who are successful follow what their teacher says exactly, while those who are creative or strong-willed are criticized for their natural qualities. The sixth lesson in the hidden curriculum, says Gatto, is "provisional self-esteem." Students are taught that their self-worth depends on perfect grades and being at the top of the class. When their grades are less than perfect, students are made to feel that they are somehow deficient. The final lesson is that there is never a place for privacy or aloneness. This teaches students that they are untrustworthy, that they need controlling (Blumenfeld, 1993).

Other teachers and theorists have also written on different aspects of the hidden curriculum. For example, Bernadine Barr writes an article called "Textbooks Help Us Miss the Point of Education" (2006) in which she discusses the hidden lessons she feels her students learn from using standard textbooks. She says that after years of textbook reading, many students "have a 'system' all worked out: read, underline in lime green, memorize, recognize the answer on a multiple-choice exam, and forget" (Barr, 2006, 2). Compartmentalized, easy-to-digest information, whether it be text or charts and graphics, she says, is not helpful to students. While students need to manipulate and organize the information themselves in order to learn, textbooks make the mistake of giving the material already ordered and summarized. They even often include multiple-choice questions for teachers!

This easy package, she asserts, is no quick fix. She gives an example of a medieval architecture class where students who didn't understand were told by peers to memorize the times on the clocks of each cathedral in order to get the correct answers on the test. Such a system, says Barr, "help[s] us focus on the wrong kinds of learning. Summaries, factoids, and choosing among multiple-choice answers do not develop the ability to evaluate information" (Barr, 2006, 4). If we want to learn, she says, we've got to get knee-deep in the material and make connections ourselves. We've got to discuss, to write, to read other student's work, and to learn from real activities and materials. While textbook learning teaches that others are the source of knowledge, process and inquiry-based learning teaches students that they themselves are in control. We gain nothing by teaching students the false premise that teachers and the books they use know everything (Barr, 2006).

While the previous two examples focused on curriculum in K-12 schools or in general, Carolin Kreber (2003) writes about the hidden curriculum as it pertains to higher education. She reviewed a book edited by Eric Margolis containing essays on various elements of the hidden curriculum in higher education. Among topics discussed in the book are the hidden curricula of physical buildings and locations in the school (showing which subjects are considered to be more important), and the idea that mentors exist to replicate the existing climate and stifle change. The hidden curriculum often involves preparing students for careers or for the work world, for example engineering courses often focus on masculine ways of doing things and disregard or belittle the feminine. Retraining programs for adults often subtly teach adults how to accept jobs for which they are overqualified. What students are taught to value, looking at their instructors, is a crucial aspect of the hidden curriculum at this level. In many fields, instructors are mostly male, mostly white. For example in the pharmaceutical industry most pharmaceutical care teachers are female, while the upper-level more scientific pharmaceutical courses instructors are mostly male (Kreber, 2003). This subtle hidden curriculum reinforces cultural stereotypes that males are better in science and that females are better caretakers.

Looking at these three examples of hidden curricula: hidden curricula in K-12 schools, hidden curricula in textbooks, and hidden curricula in higher education, it is clear that hidden curricula can take many forms. From Gatto we learned that students in the traditional school system are sometimes taught compartmentalized thinking, mistrust, confusion, and hierarchy. From Barr we heard that textbooks often steer students into a way of thinking which focuses on short-term memorization and surface learning rather than a real engagement with the material. We learned that textbooks often teach students that there is an easy fix to learning and that their own categorizations and manipulations of the material are not necessary or important. Finally, from Kreber we learned the various types of hidden curricula present in higher education, from preparing the students for some aspect of their future jobs to telling them something though the layout of the buildings or the types of instructors and relationships. No matter what type of hidden curriculum is involved, the important thing for teachers is to remember that they do exist. We need to be constantly on the watch to make sure that we are not teaching students the wrong thing through hidden curricula.

References
Barr, B. (2006). Textbooks help us miss the point of education. English Leadership
Quarterly, 28(3), 2-6.
Blumenfeld, S. (1993). Dumbing us down - reviews. The Blumenfeld Education Letter.
Retrieved March 10, 2006, from
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/bookstore/dumbdnblum1.htm
Kreber, C. (2003). The hidden curriculum in higher education. The Canadian Journal
of Higher Education, 33(1).
Wikipedia. (2006). The Hidden Curriculum. Retrieved March 11, 2006 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hidden_Curriculum