I watched
“The Saint” recently. the Val Kilmer film, not the Roger Moore series. Get over
it. And there’s a scene where a Russian scientist is trying to make a formula
for cold fusion work, but can’t, and he says something to the effect that “the
formula appears revolutionary at first blush.” This is exactly how new
curriculum is. We come up with an idea, develop it for the whole semester, and
then implement it.
From the moment we conceive it and
throughout the semester, we’re hopeful. We can even experience great successes during
the semester, but the first blush impression is not the whole story. Only when
the semester has ended can we determine if the curriculum was a success.
We’ve all been burned by the final
projects of the semester where the students simply give up. I can’t blame them
(at least not entirely) because I remember my days as an undergrad and the need
to simply finish a course. But when the numbers are stacked against us that the
majority of students didn’t get it, it’s back to the drawing board.