Natural Path can guide our curriculum.

Politically at the time of writing (July 2007), there is global consideration of the climate. Aware people including those in business have been conscious that climate change is reality, and the usual brinkmanship is entering the arena with the necessary solutions at a cost - borne by the consumer.

Even as long as 20 years ago ecologically-sound practices were a safe introduction into the curriculum, practices where appropriate waste disposal and recycling were introduced. Whilst being of positive benefit thee practices have not impacted in a way that can help an ecological disaster. In the current climate awareness scenario there might be an opportunity for an ecological imperative to be mooted within education.

Much of this will have been propounded by far more ecologically aware educationalists than I. Teachers could examine case histories of industrial plants and the impact on the environment, and I am sure far more than this has been proposed and I would think materials exist that could be used in the classroom.

What I propose is what could be termed an overarching theme asking the question "what is the environmental impact?", and in line with this an exam called Ecology. I believe there is environmental science as a subject. I don't consider that anything in this article is at all radical, and I would be happy to include appropriate links.

However a Natural Path has much broader implications than just the above, Castaneda readers will already understand this. There is a mental attitude that places one in tune with Nature, and one that pretends it can dominate Nature; the second leads to catastrophe. Attuning to Nature is a hard process that few attempt and few would claim to have achieved. It would however be a positive process to try and work towards personally.

I am more concerned about the curriculum design and the hidden curriculum. Does the curriculum attempt to follow a Natural Path or would, for example, learning how to design atomic reactors without being fully aware of safety precautions, environmental and social impact be a more likely design?

One important aspect of the Natural Path is the help it gives developing intellect. Without our intellects being used positively then there is serious negative potential. Much of today's expamnsionist issues can be seen in terms of the unnatural development of our intellects within an education system that had been hijcked.

As for the hidden curriculum the involuntary undermining of the social fabric through destructive intellectual questioning has already been discussed. By holding to Piaget, and in terms of cognitive development Piaget might well be seem as the Natural Path, the irresponsible introduction of amoral purposeless questioning that has let in this money-oriented exclusivity that is so socially damaging. There needs to be a benchmark which could guard against ill-advised innovation, the Natural Path is such.

Having determined our guide, how do we approach the curriculum?