The Function of Curriculum in Schools

S chool is about learning the values, norms, rituals, symbols, and designated knowledge of the dominant groups in power in any particular society. There are always many histories that exist in any given nation, and all of them are not always recognized or taught in the schools. So school learning is both written and unwritten. For example, schools teach an approved form of history, but they also teach students how to receive that history and what to think of it. Students may learn that in the naval bombardment of Fort McHenry in September of 1814 off Baltimore Harbor, Maryland, Francis Scott Key was aboard a British ship and observed the attack throughout the night. In the morning, the American flag was still flying over the fort, and when he was released, he wrote some verses that when put to an old English drinking song became the Star Spangled Banner. Over a hundred years later, the song was adopted by the U.S. Congress as the national anthem. This historical event could hardly be taught without a full range of values being involved, such as patriotism, allegiance, loyalty, reverence, awe, and pride, as well as an attitude that individuals that refuse to sing the national anthem are anti-American, despite the fact that such a refusal on religious grounds is also part of being an American and guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. The content of schooling in all of its forms (written and unwritten) is called the curriculum. This ancient Latin noun meant