Saber Tooth Curriculum Summary

Introduction

Education has been around since the beginning of time. It answers the question of what we need to know in order to survive in our society. In today’s era, we do not necessarily need to learn the same skills as the olden days. The Book Saber Tooth Curriculum book was written by Harold Benjamin who was known by the pseudonym Peddiwell in 1939 (Ward, 1999). The book uses humor to talk about education. It is still relevant today as it was back then.

Summary

New-Fist-Hammer-Maker whom was referred to as New-Fist was a man during the prehistoric tribe who was a doer. New-Fist introduced a curriculum to seek ways to improve children’s style of life. His goal was to provide better food, security and shelter by introducing fish- grabbing,

The other character mentioned is the conservative members who rejected New Fist’s curriculum as they believed that he was trying to change human nature. The Radicals and Wise Old Men did not agree on the idea of implementing new methods.. There is a conflict noted between the Essentialist and the Perennialist. Ganly (2009) has defined essentialist as “ a teacher centred philosophy that believes there is a common set of skills and knowledge that educated people should have. It focuses on respect for authority, developing sound habits of the mind, and training in fundamentals” (p.7). On the other hand, Perennialism as defined by Ganly (2009) is “a teacher centered philosophy that focuses on the values associated with reason. It considers knowledge as enduring, seeks everlasting truths, and views principles of existence as constant or unchanging” (p. 6). As an Essentialist, New Fist wanted to create systematic education where he made comparisons between the children and the adults and found that the children had no purpose of doing something whereas the adults were motivated to work for security, food and shelter (M Cohen, 1999) . The children were taught three subjects and were engaged because they found it to be purposeful. During the Ice Age, when the skills could no longer be applied, the learning became

Sadker & Sadker (2017) believes that, “behind every school and every teacher is a set of related beliefs--a philosophy of education--that influences what and how students are taught. A philosophy of education represents answers to questions about the purpose of schooling, a teacher's role, and what should be taught and by what methods” (Chapter 9). I seek to adopt the progressivism approach. Progressive education rejects traditional education as it is child-centred and not subject-centred (Reedy, 2017). My Philosophy of education requires me to ask myself questions on why do I teach, what do I teach and how do I teach. I constantly debate with my own thoughts, I change my mind and sometimes even strengthen my viewpoint on something. They key word to my teaching is to incorporate active learning as much as possible. My students are immuned to complete worksheets after worksheets but never understood the reason behind the drilling. They also tend to wait for me to give them answers rather than think for themselves. I do understand that the children are not to be blamed as they have been trained to behave in such way where the teacher is supposed to know everything. My challenge is to move them away from traditional thinking. The Progressivist approach allows me to plan my lessons to develop curiosity in children. Their homework does not involve worksheets but it is hands-on projects based rather than memorization. I aim to serve as a facilitator