Wes Fryer reminds us that People are the curriculum:

No, school is not primarily about the effective transmission of content from the mouth of the teacher or the page of the textbook into the mind of the learner. Yes, of course we want students to gain more knowledge and skills as a result of their school experiences– so content IS important, but content is not the curriculum.

People are the curriculum.

An authentic environment of teaching and learning is all about helping others change and expand their perceptions. This is a challenging task. Education is fundamentally about changing the world, one mind a time. If this was a simple or easy proposition, why would we appropriately value and venerate the “master teachers” with whom most of us have (however briefly) had an opportunity to exchange perceptions at some point in our educational journeys? Moving from apprentice-teacher to journeyman to master is a long road paved with plenty of mistakes and lots of experiences. It is a journey that can only be made through sustained contact with other masters, and in the trenches of the classroom working with students. This is an age-old tale of learning which likely predates the written word.

And I’d say he’s go the litmus test.

Want a fast way to validate this contention? Describe the sort of teacher YOU want teaching YOUR OWN children, or teaching YOUR OWN grandchildren. I am pretty certain you do not want a teacher who believes content is the curriculum. You do not want a teacher who believes THE TEST is the curriculum. You want someone who not only believes in their heart of hearts, but demonstrates through their daily acts, that people are the curriculum. Your child, grandchild, and neighbor’s child are the curriculum.

It reminds me of what I wrote years ago when I first put up my education page on Beacon:

As a high school teacher, I believe that, while standards and rigor are very important to the development of our students, no subject we teach is more important than the student in front of us.

Our students are our curriculum. First, foremost and always.