"World" Cup thoughts...

So I watched a little bit of this soccer game between US and Belgium. There is no reason under heaven that the Flemish should stay within 10 or 20 points of ANY professional sports team in ANY sport of ours. What I saw was that they were bigger, faster, and stronger than our boys. The announcer on ESPN, some European guy, kept saying how big and strong and fast that black guy from Belgium was, the striker, and that our "lads" just had no chance to defend him. It was obvious: their best athletes play this game and ours don't. Imagine if our defender was LeBron James, or some other top level American athlete. Then the Belgian kid would be like Rudy. The truth is if American children were indoctrinated with soccer like the rest of the world's children this "World Cup" would be a compulsory tournament at best. Much like the original Dream Team in the '92 Olympics, our "lads" would totally own the rest of these 5'6"-5'10", 160-180 lb. soccer boys. Here is my take on a top-rate soccer team of current American athletes, and I know there could be 10 others that would be just as good, tell me what you think and who your 11 would be!

USA National Team
Goalie: Calvin Johnson
Center Back: Richard Sherman
Center Back: Eric Berry
Right Back: Russell Westbrook
Left Back: LeBron James
Left Defensive Midfielder: Chris Paul
Right Defensive Midfielder: John Wall
Left Attacking Midfielder: LeSean McCoy
Center Attacking Midfielder: Johnny Manziel
Right Attacking Midfielder: Kobe Bryant
Striker: Adrian Peterson

EDLD 5335 - Curriculum Management - Week 5 Discussion Post

What is your philosophy of curriculum? How did you develop this philosophy? 

My philosophy of curriculum is that students should be inspired to wonder. Why? How? Where? When? For what reason? These are questions that students should ask everyday as an on-going part of their lives. My belief is that students should be educated in the art of learning, and taught how to think for themselves. When these things are done a student will possess the tools to overcome any problem, be it academic, emotional, or physical. I believe that we should educate our children with 20, 30, and 40 years down the road on our mind. Rote memorization of a set of fact, or study of a set canon of "classics" do nothing more than offer a misguided effort to preserve a cultural timeframe and stop any amount of cultural change. Reading and writing are the cornerstone of education. The earlier students learn to read the better, the same with writing. 

In the Week 1 discussion, you defined curriculum. Is your definition the same, or has it changed since completing this course?

No, I still believe that curriculum serves as a map to get from one place to another. In bullet number one we were asked what our philosophy of curriculum is, which is slightly different from a definition of curriculum. 

What should be the relationship between written, taught, and tested curricula? Why is this relationship critical to campus improvement? 

Why would we as educators teach a concept to our students that is only a segmented part of the educational spectrum? Testing won't make a student smarter or more successful. What is taught is part of curricula. Campus improvement is related to student success in every way. If students are not successful it really doesn't matter what other things your campus does well. Learning: this should be our ultimate goal. If and when we, as educators, take our eyes off of this goal we have missed the point of education.