Content
Partnership Education combines new curricula with existing ones. It offers standards for evaluating what in the old curriculum we want to preserve and strengthen and what we want to leave behind.
The critical factor here is to emphasize that Partnership Education does not mean discarding all the content that currently is considered essential. It is not about discarding what many professionals deem important for children to know and do, or about throwing out state standards. However, the current standards movement is limiting. What is needed is an integrated framework that combines basic academic content with the information and skills students need for a sustainable, equitable, and peaceful future. Eventually, we may see a revision of standards. For now, educators can expand state standards by integrating partnership content to develop the instructional curriculum for their school.
Content in Partnership Education programs includes standard subjects such as math, reading, writing, science, social studies, art, physical education, music, and computer literacy. (See Tomorrow's Children, pp. 45-51 for a discussion of the "Partnership Curriculum Loom and Learning Tapestry.") Woven into the entire learning tapestry are materials that reflect:
- Gender balance
- Environmental consciousness
- Multiculturalism
- Partnership values and ethical standards
- Partnership literacies and competencies, including emotional literacy, media literacy, systems competence, nonviolent conflict resolution, and responsible leadership
- The partnership-dominator continuum as an analytical lens
- The arts and music
- Partnership language
- Self-regulation and life-planning
- A meaningful story of evolution
- A more accurate and hopeful view of what being human means
