I always cringe when people talk about needing new curriculum. This came up recently in my local news when Seattle began discussing the need for new arts curriculum. Curriculum is what a teacher teaches. Sounds simple enough.
What does a teacher teach? The state standards and Eventually this will likely be the Common Core Standards. Either way, teaches teach various grade level standards. Materials are created by a publisher to help a teacher teach those standards. This helps districts keep kids across a district on the same relative page, while also helping those teachers that just don't know what to do to meet standards. Think of them as a one size fits all big box store of teachers. Similar to a Target where you can get many things of varying degrees of quality.. And some things not at all.
Materials are useful. I use Units of Study to help teach reading and writing. I love them. I also use TCI to teach social studies. I like that too, but I use it as a reading text and not a social studies text so the teacher's guide is somewhat useless. Regardless they are not my only resources, as they alone don't help me address the state standards. If there is a hole, or something is moved by too quickly, I can adjust to meet the needs of my kids.
Materials are not made for specific states, nor for your specific kids. You need to teach the standards. You also need to meet the needs of your kids. If you don't do either of those then you aren't teaching. If you use the materials then you need to make them your own, with your style and knowing what will work in your environment. Otherwise what are you, a script reader? Perhaps a warm body? Teaching is an art, largely made up by the personality and knowledge you bring on a daily basis.
I love teaching. Sometimes the semantics make me crazy.
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