A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position

The issue of whether or not all schools should require students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college is a complex one and has many nuances. While each side of the argument has its strengths and weaknesses, I believe that enforcing a national curriculum would not be beneficial to the student population and nation as a whole. A national curriculum will limit the number of subjects and degree to which those subjects are taught. Additionally, a national curriculum may diminish the quality of teachings due to limited staff of expertise within certain subjects available to one area. Furthermore, it is important to question who would be in charge of establishing the curriculum and their ability to establish a curriculum that is best for every part of the nation should be questioned.

Nations as a whole generally span a large area with varying demographics. A national curriculum would place limitations on the subjects that can be taught throughout every school in the nation. Additionally, a standardized curriculum would not be able to address the unique and varying demands of the work force in each population of the nation. Most countries are comprised of both agricultural areas as well as industrial areas. Forcing each school to teach the same curriculum may cause the schools to teach skills that are irrelevant to some areas and forego teaching skills that are imperative to success in that area. For example, the skills required to enter the work force in an agricultural area are very different than those required to enter the work force in a large industrialized city. Furthermore, in many nations, different dialects of the same language may be more prevalent. Teaching one curriculum, in one language may impair students in regions that utilize a less popular dialect.

Similarly, as many regions of the nation may have different economies and workforces, they may also have a different demographic of teachers available to the schools. If a national curriculum is set in place, teachers may be forced to teach subjects in which they are not well versed. The quality of education would be diminished by forcing teachers to teach subjects that they are not familiar with. Allowing each region develop their own curriculum based on the availability of expert teachers in that area would be more beneficial to the students and would ameliorate the education received at these schools. Additionally, a national curriculum, would limit the skills learned by the students throughout the nation. A limited skill set would negatively affect the nations future work force and economy.

The task of developing a national curriculum is a daunting one with many aspects to be considered. Assigning one official to establish the curriculum would leave it open to prejudices and expose it to unnecessary flaws due to a lack of collaboration. When developing a curriculum, it is imperative to collaborate with experts in each field from varying backgrounds and experiences. Insisting that one curriculum be set in place will diminish the variety and impair the ability to make improvements that come from collaboration. Additionally, empowering one person or board with such as task assigns them great power and leaves the curriculum vulnerable to their opinions and convictions. The needs of a nation can not be decided by a few, therefore it is beneficial to have numerous people through out a nation in charge of such a demanding task.

In conclusion, a national curriculum may be appealing but overall it would not benefit the nation. The curriculum of schools should follow basic guidelines and be subject to review but should not exactly the same. Allowing variance in curriculums is important to the variety of skills within the population as well as the quality of education delivered. The curriculum taught by schools should be established by local educators, opposed to one or a few officials.