Should the 'Hidden Curriculum' stay hidden?

            This past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to volunteer at a children’s center summer camp for children entering grade 1 or 2. Most of these children attended the camp for the whole summer, and they considered the center their second home, since many of them had been coming here for at least half of their life. To keep consistency, the center still ran their camps similar to the school year, although it had a lot less focus on academics and a lot more focus on teaching kids how to be kids. I was surprised about how important it was to teach these skills! These days, many kids are in school for most of the day, and then spend their evenings in ballet, soccer, hockey, gymnastics, piano lessons…and the list goes on and on. With so much of their time occupied in structured activities, they don’t have an opportunity to just be kids. So this summer, the focus shifted to teaching kids social skills. Typically, these are not taught formally in a classroom since the curriculum is already jam-packed with language, math, science, and other academic skills, the social skills that children need for playing on the playground and for socializing with others. So what did we do? This was the kids summer break, so it should be fun! But it also gave an opportunity to teach what is not taught during the school year – specifically learning how to initiate playground games, solve conflict, include others, and most importantly, we taught the kids the ‘golden rule’: Treat others the way you want to be treated!

Photo Retrieved from CreativeCommons and Flikr

            These social skills are generally ‘hidden’ in the curriculum, and children are expected to learn them implicitly without specific instructions; they are expected to simply learn from role models and from experiences around them (Drake, 2014). Because technology is prevalent, and what 6 year old isn’t excited to watch TV? Some of these skills were learned from watching a movie. One specific TV show, called Wimzies House, had the kids absolutely entranced. It just so happened that the week that the center had borrowed a Wimzie’s House DVD on friendship, was the same week when a large number of social problems occurred between the children. You can watch the whole episode here, but in summary, it shows how characters feel if they are being left out of a game, and different ways it could be solved.

            However, as mentioned, that week of camp also had a lot of social issues, so watching a video and hoping that the students soaked in the concept of the golden rule wasn’t enough. The staff ended up having to explicitly explain a variety of social skills. So, in camp, the hidden curriculum became the actual curriculum. The focus was on teaching the kids these social skills explicitly through conversations with the whole class, small groups, or individuals who needed more support in learning and understanding these skills.

Photo Retrieved from CreativeCommons and Flikr

            After several days of explaining these skills to the campers, we did see some improvement! Some kids had better social behaviour within days, others took weeks, but there was definitely improvement. In my placements, I haven’t seen or heard much about social skills lessons. This online book by Shapiro (2004) shows , there is a LOT to teach in terms of social skills. This book itself is 167 pages! These 9 topics don’t come naturally to everyone, and Shapiro has provided basic activities that can be used or adapted to suit the needs of any class (or camp). Scholastic also provides a list of social skills that should be achieved by each grade, but how are all kids expected to know these if they aren’t specifically taught them? What if the ‘watch and learn’ method doesn’t work for a child? Are we letting them fall through the cracks? And, would explicitly teaching social skills prevent situations like this that are absolutely heartbreaking?

References


Drake S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21st Centure Learner. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press. 

Dreisbach, S. (n.d.) Social skills grade by grade. Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/parent-child/social-skills-grade-grade.

Nathan72389 (2013) Wimzies house you're not my friend. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zof8H5ZH_wE&noredirect=1.

Saborio, B. (2014). Friendship values. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/44073224@N04/16107385635/in/photolist-qxmyzr-7em3R9-ij7gyL-7uBthx-APHcY-v2Rc5n-7FCaAs-bNZkax-2djPhx-7TZ9b6-7NZjhX-ebkFWr-dWrKAb-vNhYdg-acS8Zt-dWm7yp-b6p5jX-bvxkYu-uRdwPs-qQ8uW8-4Jxitv-5KEAZs-7KCCtj-aJKUt6-vNEVYt-3BDDye-f6WBPQ-7bNTX9-6AnHRY-6XB8qx-6TDfYX-VTgJG-6GzbA2-nuwNbr-rTHzzS-mcTXAL-9SW2uq-sy8u1J-sy9NiA-sy9Ngm-sQw2MJ-sQw1Zm-sNpfT3-sQvZ4Y-sy8qef-bA5QCQ-bvy2o1-bJsA2T-7TZhp6-7TZfyT.

Shapiro, L. E. (2004). 101 ways to teach children social skills: A ready-to-use, reproducible activity book. Retrieved from http://www.socialskillscentral.com/free/101_Ways_Teach_Children_Social_Skills.pdf.

USA Today (2014). Crying 4-year-old: They don't like me because I'm black. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zeX855EkAk.

WoodleyWonderWorks (2009). Play is good. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/3502480391/in/photolist-6kv8oX-fNmhhh-4A524c-4A4YMX-4LtvCz-oBu9x5-4YHPLd-7svgys-sByVX-pxMBJz-83HVpT-8VBqT9-2aVhf5-2aVh1m-6GHwZD-btpFXa-8rtV9b-37ofKA-5NY2EU-7iCRcU-e2T59N-4A9fFE-9sgf2f-q63CD6-dxgH8a-9pVTzv-8tU1Gb-7E3U4g-6stQeb-e7veET-nNsNW5-nQrCao-dq8LbQ-3k3Pxp-6bB8S4-62VyBM-7cF33t-2aVfMJ-8PCwt2-nNsmgb-691rMN-fdi92z-7JBgV3-73pQpx-arhPfM-c2bp1j-rxe47K-8qG14e-8E715f-ny2LTf.