Over the past 30 years, I have put together many different types of curricula, for classes at Sage, UWM, workshops, seminars, private lessons, private group training, and programs for other schools. In the course of my research of other systems, I have also seen many other systems’ curricula, allowing me to identify patterns in structure that are more or less useful.
How a System is Organized
The purpose of a curriculum is to organize information so it can be more easily learned or communicated. Having looked at the curriculum from dozens of schools and traditions, I have noticed that they all tend to fall into certain types. Putting aside the specific number of steps between a novice level and an advanced level, many of which are arbitrary distinctions, the organization of the information will usually fall into these categories:
Pyramidal Curriculum
Many systems organize their material in such a way that beginners are exposed to the most information, and as a student progresses through the ranks, they will have less and less new material to learn. I have found that this type of system results in more advanced students losing interest.
Cascading Curriculum
Some systems organize their material in such a way that the topics that a student focuses on will change as they advance. In this sense, they focus on one portion of the curriculum at a time. I have found that within this type of organization, there is a tendency for students to get rusty on the material that they are not currently focusing on.
Layered Curriculum
The system of organization that I prefer, and have used at Sage, is a layered approach, where over time, new layers of meaning are revealed to the student, about the same material they have already learned. Not only does this reinforce the need to review old material, but it also leads to transformative “ah-hah” moments, where a student suddenly gains a new appreciation for what they have learned. This tends to recycle enthusiasm, and sustains a maintenance of skill. Further, it prompts the students to consider what else they may be missing, and thereby create a habit of deep consideration in their training.
Presentation
I like to think of a Curriculum as having several components. Each serves a different role.
1. The Big List of Shit we Do. In a nutshell, this is a categorized list of every subject we may do in class. This list contains EVERYTHING, and is not broken down by level or hierarchy as pertaining to student rank. This serves primarily as a source of inspiration for instructors and will not be shared with students (as it is lacking context).
2. The Levels Breakdown. This is a curtailed list of what will be trained at each rank. This is the reference that Instructors will use to organize classes, or themes over a period of time within a school, given a particular student body. This also serves as the guidelines for instructors for what to teach in any given class. This list may or may not be shared with students.
3. Testing Requirements. This is a list that contains the minimum amount of material that will indicate the skill or ability of a student at any given point in time. Given that we do far more than we could possibly test in a reasonable amount of time, it is better to have a select number of drills or exercises or techniques to be demonstrated, that will be indicative of the student’s skill in the rest of the material. This material is shared with students, and is what keeps them on track as they progress.
Obstacles
In the course of teaching, there will be many obstacles to getting a student from beginner to advanced. These include:
- Inconsistent Attendance of a given student
- Having to incorporate new people at random intervals (Starting over syndrome)
- Conflicting Interests
- Injuries
- Work & Family Obligations
- Financial Crises
- Emotional Crises
If a student can only make it two days per week, they will only get the influence of what is covered in those classes, and may be missing half of what you cover in any given week. Further, depending on the class schedule, they may be missing certain topics entirely.
One of the ways to handle new students is to make sure that the topics you cover in classes are cyclical. We will return to each topic within a set period of time, so that if a new beginner starts mid-topic, they will get the material again in the future. There is really no other practical way to run a studio.
Summary
This cyclical, Layered Curriculum structure is predicated on the observation that, in terms of their ability to demonstrate on demand, students will forget most of what you teach them, until they been exposed to it many, many times. Also, some students do better with the pressure of a formal test than others. The point is that we will expose people to far more than we will hold them accountable for, and while that material may not be at the forefront of their mind, it still makes a valuable impression, that can be built upon over time. If they have trained it enough, their muscles will remember.
The curriculum section on this website will begin as an outline, and we will over time replace each element with a link to an article about that aspect of the curriculum, as time and resources permit, which may include video. At that point the curriculum list will function like a site map for students. I will be prioritizing the testing requirements first. I may include a wider number of lists (sans video) to be available only to instructors.