Curriculum Introduction

The English word curriculum is derived from the Latin verb currere, to run. The infinitive, curriculum, can trace its etymological origins to “racecourse.” Curriculum: to run the course, as William Pinar points out in What is Curriculum Theory?

Curriculum, in an integrated model, is alive, permutative, ever-evolving. Each aspect is dependent on the specific spatial, temporal, and emotional contexts through which the course is run. An integrated curriculum offers a generative, world-building framework, filled with risk, conflict, transgression, and synthesis. We learn as much from what happens to us while we are doing it as from the stated content through which we begin.

Each of the curricular nodes below are open systems that are derived from my work across middle school, high school, and university teaching in the arts and humanities. They offer guideposts and resources for creative and integrated units, courses, and areas of study. Most have applications across varied areas: K-12 general music, K-12 performance, advanced performance, applied performance, music appreciation, music theory, comparative music systems, music history, ethnomusicology, arts integration, humanities, and social sciences. Consulting is available to support curriculum development within or across any of these nodes. Please check back soon for additional online materials.

Curriculum Vessels

Architectonics of Change

Arts Praxis for Disrupting Injustice

Art in Border Spaces

Classical Music Systems

Musical Legacies of the Middle Passage

Transgression and Transformation in European Art Music

Comparative Music Theory

Comparative Epics and Global Performance Traditions

Art and Medicine