A Metaphor of Curriculum

“You missed” by Mike Burns is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

To me curriculum is a game of darts in a bar. The dartboard stands for the learning outcomes an institution has designated that learners must hit, and the bar is the institution that holds all the facets of the how curriculum is directly and indirectly taught. The darts are thrown by the player (the learner), with younger players standing much closer to the dartboard and older ones standing further away. We find players of the same age in groups throwing darts while supporting each other’s play and engaging in conversation. Each individual carries in their own set of darts when entering the bar. Some players have an edge with darts that have been passed down from parents, who already had success playing the game, and went on to become masters in other games based on darts. Some of the players don’t have those well used darts, and are quite new to the game finding it an uphill battle. In the past, some of the players in the bar had generations of family members who were experts at playing a game that had nothing to do with dartboards, bars, or darts, but instead played a game called lacrosse (first nation’s way of knowing and learning).  Lacrosse created challenges because it couldn’t be facilitated in the restrictions of a building. Presently, everyone plays darts here with a new video game edition where you can also play online. In the bar you have servers (teachers) who direct the game, bartenders who you can get advice from (counselors), and the bouncers (administration) that run the game consistently for ten months out of the year, but decide to close in the summer. Recently the bar has found that not everyone likes to play darts, and has created compromises by bringing in a pool table. On one of the walls there is a poster of lacrosse. People talk about the game, but overall many have forgotten how to play.