1. Should fixed curriculum be used in schools?

‘Some harder reforms are required. Abolish the fixed, required curriculum. People remember only what is interesting and useful to them, what helps make sense of the world or helps them enjoy or get along in it. All else they quickly forget, if they ever learn it at all. The idea of the “body of knowledge”, to be picked up at school and used for the rest of one’s life, is nonsense in a world as complicated and rapidly changing as ours. Anyway, the most important questions and problems of our time are not in the curriculum, not even in the hot-shot universities, let alone the schools. Check any university catalogue and see how many courses you can find on such questions as Peace, Poverty, Race, Environmental Pollution and so on.”

Group Discussion a)Give your own views on the problems below and speak against your opponents.

Children before school. Do they have opportunities to learn? Are they eager to find and figure things out? Inquisitive? Confident? Persistent? Independent? Have they achieved a degree of three days. Of course, I shall take Only the things I can’t do

b) Give Russian equivalents for the following English proverbs and sayings (or translate them into Russian). b) Explain in English the meaning of each proverb. c) Make up a dialogue to illustrate one of the proverbs: 1. When one loves his art no service seems too hard. 2. The devil is not so black as he is painted. 3. When in doubt leave it out, 4. Art is long, life is short. 5. That’s a horse of another colour. 6. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. 7. Art lies in concealing art. 8. Art has no enemy except ignorance.