What is a Living Curriculum?

We offer our curriculum online for many reasons. Some of those are: the ability to provide numerous video tutorials, mp3s, and extra resources; the ability to host member galleries; the potential for saving paper (many members use at least some of the resources on a tablet); to reduce cost to customers; and to provide access to people who have difficulty receiving printed materials. 

But did you know that another important reason for our online structure is that we are a ‘living curriculum’?

What is a ‘living curriculum’?

A ‘living curriculum’ is one that has the ability to change with the needs of its members as well as the current needs of a quickly evolving world culture. A ‘living curriculum’ also allows us to update any outdated information or add new information as scientific discoveries are made or new historical facts come to light.

One example of how this has recently benefited members is when we recently hired a few diversity editors to help modernize the language in some of the traditional stories and verses to align with current awareness of how some previously accepted language, stories, or songs may need to be re-evaluated. Because we are able to make changes to your curriculum online we have been able to make changes as our editors finish each document. With a printed curriculum this would be impossible to do quickly, and if it did need to be done it would require that the curriculum provider throw out thousands of pages of old curriculum.

This could also impact how some print curriculum providers react to evaluations of their content. When it is impossible to change the content quickly, it is also harder to be open to change or updates in content.

A ‘living curriculum’ also allows us to update and enrich your curriculum every year so what you purchased last year or even last month increases in educational value every day!

One example of how this has recently benefited members is when we purchased exclusive publication and ownership rights to the Golden Beetle Books written by Waldorf teacher Alan Whitehead. Instead of waiting the 18-24 months it will take us to republish all these books in print form our lifetime members have access to these books as soon as our typists and editors finish them. So instead of waiting two years, there are already 14 new books online!

Finally, a ‘living curriculum’ allows us to make improvements that members suggest or to make immediate corrections if there are any errors. So if you ever have a great idea or you find an error or something you think needs to be fixed  — we have you covered! You can get assistance from our team. We will look at your suggestion and let you know if it is something we can fix immediately, put into action soon, schedule for a future date, or provide to you on an individual basis.

With a living curriculum we are able to listen to our members and have open discussions about the curriculum content and the needs of our members. So be sure to contact us at: CustomerService@TheBEarthInstitute.com if you have any ideas how the curriculum could work better for you or if you spot any errors.

Some tips on using a ‘living curriculum’ are:

1. Don’t worry about all the ‘updates’ you see happening in the newsletters and in the announcements and forum. These will always be happening. You can feel confident in printing your complete curriculum any time – it is already finished and waiting for you – we just like to keep making it better!
2. Don’t worry about re-printing. Many of these updates are small. . We will send an e-mail about what the update is.
3. Updates are marked with a version number. If you find a file you feel is missing something or needs updates you can check the ‘version number’ on the file you have and see if it matches what is on the website. If it does not then we have updated that file and there is already a new version. If it is an important update we always send out an e-mail. 
4. We suggest reading about the updates in a relaxed manner. You do not need to reprint, re-plan, or do anything with the updates unless you want to. People have been using our curriculum for 25 years without the updates so your current version is already the most recent version of the curriculum.
5. Enjoy the Updates! As a member you receive all the updates for free. Enjoy all the extra ‘gifts’ we send out as the year evolves.