If the reader could spend a year in the Thirty Schools, he would doubtless linger in certain ones where other strange things are going on. There he would see a group of boys and girls meeting for two hours or more every day with the same teacher. The chances are that they have been meeting thus with this teacher for two, perhaps three, years. What have they been doing with all this time together?

Let us suppose that this is a class in a Denver high school. The teacher has been studying and planning for a long time with other teachers from his own school and from the other 14 junior and senior high schools of the city. Together they prepared for the "core curriculum." Although the teacher and his classes would plan together for their work and make final selection of the topics to be studied, the following quotation from the Denver report indicates the range and wealth of possibilities of their work:

In order to understand the kinds of experiences which the core curriculum attempts to provide for high school pupils, one must recognize that the program is concerned with a continuous attack upon the problems which are persistent in the lives of adolescents as members of a democratic society. Units developed around such significant problems become the program of studies. Each unit is an organization of experiences, with a beginning, a development, and an en Each unit has a central idea to which the experiences chosen are relate The problems or areas of activity listed below are those which have been used by all five senior high schools in planning units for the core program. No one high school has attempted to cover them all; but during the last three-years of the Study, units in every area have been developed somewhere in the system. No attempt has been made in Denver to allocate these units finally to any grade level. They have implications for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The emphases of the unit developed to meet the problem depend upon the needs, interests, and capacity of the group of pupils who are concerned, the resources available, and the creative ability of the teacher or teachers who direct the study. ⁸

Space does not permit more than a sampling of the extensive list of activities which comprise this program. ⁹ However, the following problems, "arranged according to areas of living, are indicative of the character of the work undertaken in the various core curriculums of Denver."

1. Personal Living
   
   1. Understanding ourselves through
      1. Discovering our interests, aptitudes, and powers
         
      2. Measuring the extent of our information in important areas of knowledge
         
      3. Analyzing our use of time and effort and planning for more constructive ways of living
         
      4. Becoming aware of our vocational interests and general vocational aptitudes
         
   2. Developing interests and appreciations which we already have and exploring others in such fields as
      1. Reading
         
      2. Gardening
         
      3. Painting, modeling
         
      4. Singing, dancing
         
      5. Nature study
         
      6. Physical sciences
         
   3. Developing maturing appreciations of the resources which make life worth living, in
      1. The creative expression of others in the fields of plastic graphic arts, music, drama, literature, et
         
      2. The world of nature and science
         
      3. Learning how to make the most of ourselves in appearance, poise, and social adequacy, through emphasis upon health, grooming, cleanliness, order, and fitness
         
   4. Developing a philosophy of lif
      
2. Immediate personal-social relationships
   
   1. Orientation to the school through
      
      1. Becoming acquainted with the pupils in the group and with those who are leaders in the student life of the school
         
      2. Becoming acquainted with the teachers and administrators
         
      3. Considering the meaning of education in a democracy
         
   2. Exploring the problems of living in a modem family through
      
      1. Determining the responsibilities of every age group in such a relationship
         
      2. Considering the economic problems of the home and the budgeting and spending of the family income
         
      3. Studying the origins of family standards, traditions, and beliefs
         
   3. Studying the problems of human relationship, including
      
      1. Boy-and-girl relationships
         
      2. The personal problems of boys
         
      3. The personal problems of girls
         
      4. The nature and obligations of the small groups to which one belongs
         
   4. Surveying and evaluating activities and resources for recreation of the family or small group
      
3. Social-civiC relationships
   
   1. Knowing the community through a study of such areas as
      
      1. The history of the city and its racial character
         
      2. Government of the city, including taxation ... and the like
         
      3. Providing for the cultural growth of the people through libraries, symphony societies, museums, schools, and the like
         
   2. Discovering the unique characteristics of American democracy and comparing them with the other methods of political and social organizations of the world . . . This would include a study of
      
      1. The documents of democracy
         
      2. The lives of our democratic leaders
         
      3. The place of minority groups in the nation
         
   3. Facing and attempting to help in the solution of social problems
      
   4. Gaining some grasp of international relations and what it means to be a citizen of the world, with emphasis upon the current scene
      
   5. Learning how public opinion is formed and the sources of information upon which we tend to rely
      
4. Economic relationships
   
   1. Studying ways in which clothing, shelter, food, water, and power are produced and distributed
      
   2. Recognizing and learning how to deal with consumer problems
      
   3. Realizing the impact of machine production upon living and the possibilities of improving living conditions under a machine civilization
      
   4. Studying the conflicting economic systems of the world and the various ways of providing for production and distribution
      
   5. Studying the vocational opportunities in the community and the nation and studying the individual's special abilities and capacities in terms of a vocation
      
   6. Studying the problems of employment in
      1. Training for a job
      2. Applying for a job
      3. Employer-employee relationships
      4. Finding the cultural aspects of vocational life
         

With topics such as these our teacher and his boys and girls have been engage The visitor will note quickly that they are unusually busy. As he examines the program for the core curriculum, he realizes that it has substance, that here are topics of great import to youth which would challenge their best abilities and their powers of hard, continuous effort. Of course, they could not study all topics that are suggeste They have selected according to their developing concerns and needs. They have read, explored, investigate Together they have searched for knowledge and understanding.

As this new work developed, it became necessary to find some term to designate it. Since it was not just English or social studies or science, but all of these and more, it could not be called by any of the conventional subject names. Some schools began to use the terms "Stem Course," "Basic Course ... .. General Education," but more adopted the designation "Core Curriculum." None of these terms is entirely satisfactory, but General Education and Core Curriculum, terms most frequently found in the school reports, are used here synonymously.

After the visitor has found out what a group of students do together with one teacher two hours every day for two or three years, he will doubtless attempt to learn what these boys and girls do with the rest of the school day. Usually high school pupils are in school about six hours. What do they do with the other four?

That depends upon the individual. All students share in the units of study which comprise the core or general education cours For the rest of his work each student's program is his own. From the whole range of studies offered 1)), the school, choice is made of what is best for him. It should be emphasized that the student does not select his courses haphazardly or on his own responsibility. There have been frequent conferences involving student, parents, and advisor. Their combined wisdom is brought to bear upon the planning of the student's program.

For one individual, in addition to his two hours of "general education," there may be courses in shop work, mathematics, and English; for another, the four hours may be given to work in foreign language, science, and one of the arts. A third, being a slow worker, may need more time for study, so his additional work may be limited to English and mathematics. These individual programs change from time to time as certain needs are met and others develop. Always the student has the guidance of his "core" teacher, not only in choosing subjects of study and various sorts of student organizations, but in matters of more intimate, personal nature.

These, then, are the types of curriculum revision the visitor would find in the participating schools. In some the changes are limited to the content of conventional subjects. In others new content is found in the broad fields type of curriculum. In still others the new content is included in the study of whole cultures. New subject matter is introduced in some schools to promote the student's predominant career interest. The most marked innovations are found in those schools which have developed core curriculums. Strict classification of ever), school into one of these five groups is impossibl Several schools, for example, have developed the core curriculum, and, at the same time, have modified the content of conventional subjects. Since the schools were free to inaugurate new programs of study, naturally differences among them resulted.