The "Crowded-Out-Curriculum": Are We Shortchanging Our Students?

The "Crowded-Out-Curriculum": 

Are We Shortchanging Our Students?

Are our kids today learning the skills they need to be successful in this changing world? Most teachers could answer this with one word: "No!"

But it's far better to ask the school kids. Their answer is still a resounding "No!" They will tell you why if you ask. They won't likely choose the word "irrelevant." They will say it's called learning, just not real world learning. They will say it's mostly stuff you now find tested on a bubble sheet. It's just, plain not real.

We at RE@L say it's not real, too. Yes, we know kids need basic skills. But the curriculum has become so over-crowded with basics and testing and reteaching and more testing, that there's no time for Practical Life Skills.

Standards are important! Kids need to know how to read, to compute, to write, to possess a common set of key skills that most everyone needs to get by in life. But in doing that, and adding in repeated testing, we are driving out other important skills.

The arts are among those curriculums that have lost out. They are trying to make a comeback in the new STEM movement: Science, Technology, Environment, Arts & Mathematics. That's fine, and we support it.

In fact we have products coming down our pipeline that address it.

Coming soon to a school near you: RE@L-world water quality investigation. Classroom-based and outdoor activities that make learning real.

But more on that later! Back to the what those kids think.




Here's a list of some of the questions we hear them asking:

•   How can I find a job?

•   What do I really want to do with my life? What options to I have? 

•   What am I good at? What do I dislike doing?

•   Where can I learn the skills to become a competent worker and provide useful services to others?

•   How can I compete in the global market-place?

•   Most importantly, how can I become successful in my career, give back and enjoy what I do?

RE@L has more Real Life Practical Skills in the mobile app pipeline: Child Care, Social Life, Teen Wellness, Consumer Life Skills and more……

Why? Because we all know kids today need to know more.  

RE@L will be there with useful mobile apps to help students, parents and teachers make it happen. 

More exciting real learning tools are coming!

From RE@L!