Reaction Papers

1
Tenorio, Philip Adrian a.
BOOK REPORT ON THE SABER TOOTH CURRICULUM

I. SUMMARY OF THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS

CHAPTER ONE: Seminar in Tijuana Raymond Wayne finds himself enjoying tequila daisies and the company of Luis on the longest bar in the world. After a few daisies, he looks to his side and notices his professor, Dr. Peddiwell, from Petaluma State College. Raymond invites him over, and the Professor continues to establish himself to be superior in statue in comparison to Raymond, continually disrespecting him by forgetting his name numerous of times throughout their conversation. The professor symbolizes all the facets of higher education fixed into one character, both negative and positive. But it wasn’t it until Dr. Peddiwell starting downing the tequila daisies that suddenly his external fixtures that related to his high position as a noted professor where suddenly melted away, a true connection between student and teacher began to develop.

CHAPTER TWO: The Saber-tooth Curriculum In Chapter 2, The Saber-Tooth Curriculum, New Fist is introduced to reader as a revolutionary thinker who greatly impacted the well being of his tribe through his systematic educational system, which was created by his ability to think beyond the realm of fixated cultural intelligent existence. However, New Fist was quickly reputed by the elders of the tribe, stating education was only to be given by the Great Mystery and not created by man. After New Fist's rebuttal, most of the elders bought into his system of education, which then led to a positive production of growth for the tribe. Three fundamentals marked the first educational curriculum: (1) catching fish with the bare hands, (2) clubbing tiny horses to death, and (3) frightening saber-toothed tigers with torches.
By studying those three subjects in their "schools" the stone-age people got along fairly well until a changed condition came caused by the movement of ice from the north, the forerunner of the ice age. The streams became muddied and fish could not be seen to catch with the bare hands, so someone invented the net, made of vines. The tiny horses fled and the antelope replaced them. The stone-agers invented antelope snares. The saber-toothed tigers died of pneumonia, but the big ice bear replaced them, and the stone-age men dug pits to trap them. So net-making, twisting antelope snares and digging bear pits became the three essentials of life.
But the schools continued to teach fish-catching with the hands, horse-clubbing, and tiger-scaring because they had taught them for years. Some "liberal" wanted to teach net-making, snare-making, and pit-digging but he was met with opposition. Some even wanted to do away entirely with the old subjects, but they aroused a storm and were called radicals. The old subjects must be retained for their "cultural value," the school people contended. The proposed new subjects had no place in the curriculum. The conservatives said: "Training to catch non-existent fish with bare hands is the best way to achieve muscular coordination and agility; training in clubbing horses that do not exist is an education in stealth and ingenuity; practicing to frighten tigers that do not exist develops courage. Some things are fundamental and sacred in education and must not be changed. And with this belief the cemented unchanging cultural ideals of education were implemented forever.

CHAPTER THREE: The Real Tiger School In chapter 3, The Real-Tiger School, we begin to get an insight into the world of schooling and philosophy behind schools as shaped by the educators of the school. The professors of the schools who had been involved for a long period of time created the system and curriculum design which related back to the philosophy of those specific individuals. For example, teacher led and teacher focused. In response to this irreversible issue, a progressive school was created called The Creative Fish-Grabbing school, where the parents wanted the curriculum not to be driven with too much direction from the educator, but allowing the child to naturally learn through their own creative spirit of knowing. Overtime the school was deemed a success, but its practices were still rooted in a fictional reality when students were using fish-grabbing techniques with old tired fish in a small pond, even with true real world practice of fish-grabbing the students were still in a fictional environment that could not allow the growth of new intellect. When students started to use these fish-grabbing techniques in the real-world in real lakes, and streams they were punished, shutting down their true-creativeness. The same was true for the school of The Real-Tiger School. As the children practiced to learn methods of tiger-scaring, the tigers were old and unwilling to participate to represent a real-world event. But still all members of the community believed the teaching practices of these schools were progressive. However, the sad reality was that no true changes were made to curriculum and the belief system of the school help develop a Real-Progressive School.

REACTION: I remember a person who once told me that we show who we really are when we are free from restriction. The time Mr. Peddiwell indulges in his daisies he was freed from restrictions and somehow leveled with Wayne. The first chapter somehow demonstrates the idea of superiority and how it was lost for a good reason. The same situation was highlighted in the Paleolithic age of education where universities express superiority than of the other levels of education. They seemed to forget that the true essence of their existence narrows down to one single objective and that is to prepare their students for life. The second chapter of the book which focuses on New Fist’s curriculum sums up the true essence of education which is to prepare the students for life: making them able to provide their needs thus giving them the ability to survive. The curriculum includes fish grabbing, horse clubbing and tiger scaring. However, changes happen. These old practices were no longer applicable to the world they live in but still they taught it in school. Why would they even bother teaching their students useless subjects? That was a very sad picture. On the other hand, while the other members of the tribe are struggling for survival, some of them discovered fish net making, pit digging and trap snares. This was a very effective means of survival during those times. These new found ways of survival didn’t make it to the curriculum. The elders refuted these so called radicals and that these new practices would be just mere training and not education. They rejected the changes which they should have embraced. I think, education should be a response to the changing world. Modern teachers must provide students modern ways to adapt to a modern world. Education must be a response to a changing world and at the same time a tool to change the world. The third chapter’s main focus is progress or being progressive. In this era, the teaching profession was much developed. The curriculum in becoming a teacher was made respectable by making them hard to learn but still they are unable to produce better teacher. As a response to this situation, they made the students do much of the learning activities but with the guide of the teacher. This was very similar to our curriculum Understanding by Design. An incident occurred which gave birth to the Real-fish school. In this school, students were engaged to a resemblance to what is real (a hole filled with old tired fish). Other subjects followed and tried to make their subject realistic as possible and they considered this as the idea of being progressive. This is not progress at all. The mere fact that they are teaching subjects which their students couldn’t use in life has made their education stagnant. Progress as defined in some dictionaries means to step forward or changing for the better. They have improved their curriculum but yet the curriculum doesn’t provide the students information and tools which they could use in real life.

Comments: The book shows the predicament of our present educational system. The author used the Paleolithic age to represent our own time. The New Fist’s curriculum represents the Basic Education Curriculum on some ways. The Real-Tiger school represents the UBD (Understanding by Design) where students do most of the learning activities. The problem with the youth of the Paleolithic age and today also shows resemblance. The books ideas are very timely and it somehow suggests the need for a change in our educational system. However there are differences between Paleolithic and modern age. Back then, they learn to survive and keep up with reality. Now, we learn to prepare for a better life. According to Mr. Peddiwell, most of the teachers in the Paleolithic age were taken from those were not really good at horse clubbing or fish grabbing. It hit me, why would they put hire a teacher that doesn’t even have the necessary skills to do the things he actually teaches. This was a tragic situation and to top that up, our educational system too is in the same predicament. Education has continued to stay stagnate in its cultural norms and perspectives for decades, unwilling to compromise to change. In today’s changing world, we must be able to create students who can critically analyze and critique the stimuli provided by their educators, in order to create an original reality that allows students to grow continuously towards their future goals. The intelligently written satire called The Saber-Tooth Curriculum (1939) by J. Abner Peddiwell provides an everlasting insight to the unchanging world of education. Its content is still very relevant in today’s world of education, allowing teachers to begin to find their own unique interpretation of the purpose of teaching and the delivery of its curriculum different from what has been imbedded in the system.