CURRICULUM (Lat. curriculum, a running, a course, from currere, to run). The term applied to a course of study, or collectively to that of any type of educational institutions. as the col lege curriculum, the high-school curriculum, the common-school curriculum, etc. The historical basis of the modern educational curriculum is found in the Seven Liberal Arts of the Middle Ages. the development of which from Greek phil osophical speculation and educational practices is traced under the title of ARTS, SEVEN LIBERAL. As long as the idea. of the symbolical perfection of this organization of studies and of human knowledge prevailed, there was no modification of the form of the curriculum, though the con tent of these terms was modified from time to time. All lower education was included in the subject of the trivinnt—Le. grammar, rhetorie, and dialectic—which represented so many ap proaches to the Latin language. This was based, it is true, on the work of the 'singing' school, which furnished to the child the school arts (reading and writing), with a modicum of arith metic. The curriculum of higher education included the subjects of the quudririum—i.e. arithmetic, geometry (mathematics and geog raphy), astronomy (natural sciences), and music (:esthetic, etc.). The elaboration of the curricu lum under the influences of the early universities and of the Renaissance consisted chiefly in the addition of the subjects of medicine and law, both common and civil, and in the change in the content of the subjects of the qua drivium. These changes can be followed in the successive Papal rules and university regulations which pre scribed the books that should he read in the sev eral subjects. From the time of the Renaissance to the close of the eighteenth century, there was no modification in the organization of the edu cational curriculum and little in the content. From that time, however, the changes have been numerous and radical, and the old idea of the historical and logical perfection of the tradi tional curriculum has largely disappeared. In the United States, where condition, permitted these changes with less opposition than in the more conservative societies, very extensive changes have occurred, and an almost chaotic condition has ensued. These changes have consisted prima
rily in the addition of new subjects to each of the stages of the curriculum, due to the great development of knowledge, especially scientific, the a ineteenth century. The curriculum of the elementary school has expanded in content from the three fundamental school arts until it now embraces from twelve to fifteen subjects in half that many spheres of intellectual interests, and in Hine, from three or four years to eight and nine; the secondary curriculum has under gone no expansion in time, perhaps a diminution, owing to the encroachment of both the lower and the higher curricula, but has added so great a number of subjects that it deals in a preliminary with almost all those included within the curriculum of college and university. This mul tiplication of subjects, with no corresponding in crease in time and with but little improvement in methods of teaching, has made the problem of the curriculum of the secondary school peculiar ly difficult, and that part of our educational system is most in need of reform.
The problem of the curriculum in each of its stages is twofold: that of content, and that of organization. This twofold problem is now and long has been the chief topic of educational dis cussions in the United States. It cannot be said that any solution has been offered, but a state ment of the ease will be found in the article PEDAGOGY. (See also ELECTIVE STUDIES.) The matter has received extended study by American educators, and has formed the subject of two important reports by committees appointed by the National Educational Association. The first of these, issued in 1392, is known as the Report of the Comm.ittee of Ten, and relates chiefly to secondary education; the second, known as the Report of saw Committee of Fifteen, relates chiefly to the elementary school and was issued in 1S95. Consult, also: Reports of the National Educational Association (Washington, 1865, et seq.); files of the Educational Review (New York, 1891, et seq.).