For many of us, planning the Sunday school program means choosing a curriculum. There are many questions to ask when evaluating and considering what curriculum is the right one for your church. The first steps are to understand what you expect of the product or resource you decide to purchase (or develop).

The word curriculum comes from the Latin verb currere, which means “to run.”  Taken literally, the curriculum means a course to be run. Over the years, this word has been used in many different ways. Sometimes we talk about curriculum as our total experience of Christian nurture. In this sense, every setting, every person, every printed item and every piece of equipment not limited to the classroom situation is curriculum. The curriculum becomes a person’s total experience within the community of believers, the church. Worship and the sacraments, the sermon and a pastoral call, classroom experiences and fellowship meals – all are part of the curriculum. We often understand curriculum in a narrow sense, seeing it only as a set of materials – the books for teachers and students. It is more accurate to speak of these as curriculum materials, recognizing that they are only part of the whole curriculum for education in the church.

For our purposes, curriculum is the design or plan for education in a congregation.  Curriculum materials are developed to help carry out the general plan or design for Christian education in one particular congregation. Because we are learning all the time, we are not always aware of everything that is going into our design for learning. We need to examine as carefully as possible what we are actually presenting that is part of our plan. We also become aware of what we are unintentionally presenting or have left out of our plan. We refer to these as the explicit curriculum and the implicit curriculum.

Our explicit curriculum is that which is actually presented, consciously and with intention. For example, when we teach the story of the Good Samaritan, the facts we present, the pictures we use, the songs we sing and the activities we plan are all part of our explicit curriculum.

The implicit curriculum occurs through the room design, attitudes and learning styles we use. We may not think of this as teaching, but all of us learn with each of these things.  Some implicit curriculum teaches by its presence and some by its absence. 

For example, a room design with the teacher standing in front of a group of students implicitly teaches, “I have the answer.  I will tell you what you are to learn and you will learn it.” Or in the telling of the Good Samaritan, the questions we choose to ask teach implicitly. When we ask questions that require reciting back the facts of the story, we teach the learners that it is important to know the story as it happened.

These are examples of implicit curriculum that teaches by its presence. If we ignore questions about what the story of the Good Samaritan means for life today, we teach that Bible stories are only for the past and do not help us live today. And if we fail to provide pictures of faithful people from a variety of cultures, a variety of places in the world and a variety of ages, we teach that our faith is for people who look like us, act like us and live like us. These are examples of implicit curriculum that teaches by its absence.

Implicit curriculum is not limited to content. If men are not serving as teachers in a particular congregation, then both boys and girls begin to get the message that education is only for women. And if we do not provide a variety of activities in a teaching design, we teach our students that their opinions, preferences and learning styles are not important.

It is important to examine and re-examine what we teach explicitly, what we teach implicitly and what we are leaving out. All of these form our attitudes, values and beliefs, and determine what we learn and do not learn about being faithful disciples. Each denomination has its own specific creedal statement or outline of faith, so it is important to review and evaluate curriculum resources through the lens of your belief system.

Here are some questions to ask when researching and reviewing curriculum.

Goals: What is the purpose of the program?

• Does it have a general goal? Is this consistent with your faith community’s statement of faith and goals for your education programs?
• Does the curriculum have a foundation paper or does it list the goal of the curriculum? (This is often listed as objectives). 
• Does the curriculum’s goal complement the mission of your parish and education program?
• Do the materials in the curriculum support the goals, or are they busy work?

Content: What is the nature of the subject matter of the materials?
Jesus Christ – How is the person and work of Jesus considered? God? Holy Spirit?
Church – What is the view of the church? Of the church’s worship? Of the church in relation to individual, family and society?  Is this in keeping with your parish’s belief and character?  Is there a denominational focus? 

• Jesus Christ – How is the person and work of Jesus considered? God? Holy Spirit?
• Church – What is the view of the church? Of the church’s worship? Of the church in relation to individual, family and society?  Is this in keeping with your parish’s belief and character?  Is there a denominational focus? 

• Christian Life – What sets Christians apart from others, according to this curriculum?  Are contemporary issues/themes covered, and how are they treated?  How forthright are the issues examined?

Methodology: Views of Teaching and Learning

• Students – How are students’ abilities, interests and characteristics taken into account?  What is expected of learners?  Is the material age-appropriate?
• Teachers – How is the act of teaching treated?  Is provision made for team teaching?  Why, or why not?  How much specific guidance (lesson plans, resources, etc.) is provided for the individual teacher?
• Teacher Preparation/Training – What provision is assumed with respect to teacher training? Do the materials suggest ideas for teachers’ meetings, self-evaluation, and spiritual growth?
• Lesson/Session plans – How specifically are lesson plans developed? Are suggestions given for a pre-session activity? Are patterns and activities flexible?  Are activities dependent upon one another, do they continue from week to week or stand on their own?
• Grouping of ages – What patterns are employed?  For what reasons? 
• Evaluation – Are there any means of evaluating what students have learned?
• Home/family – What provision is made for church-home cooperation? Are suggestions or materials provided for parents? Others?

Format: How is the material published?

• General Plan – Are materials issued quarterly/yearly/seasonally? Are they dated/undated?  Arranged in units or individual lessons?
• Teacher/Student materials – Are there materials of teachers and students?  Are they interrelated to one another?  How are they to be utilized?
• Cost – How are the materials priced?  What is the expense per pupil?  For a total parish?  Do you need to purchase the “whole program”? 
• Reading Level – Is it age appropriate?  Do all students need to be able to read on the same level? Is the teacher’s material user friendly in its reading level/vocabulary for your teachers?

No matter what materials we choose to use in our Sunday schools, it is important to remember that it is about the relationship the teacher shares with the student and how the learning group supports one another. When we live our lives modeled after the teachings of Jesus Christ in our encounters with one another, the “course to be run” is that of the Gospel.

Sharon Ely Pearson is the Children’s Ministries & Christian Education Coordinator for the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut.

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Product Roundup

HeartShaper from Standard Publishing
How many hearts will you help shape this Sunday? Ask any Sunday School teacher and they'll agree...it's the shape of a child's heart that matters most. Heartshaping begins when the youngest learners see God's heart in their caring teachers.  It continues for a lifetime by helping kids to read, study, pray and live God's Word for themselves. Introducing HeartShaper, Standard Publishing's new quarterly curriculum for kids ages birth through preteen. Weekly lessons from HeartShaper provide the options and flexibility teachers need to meet the unique needs and abilities of the children in their class.
www.heartshaper.com

The Edge from Gospel Light
To build the foundation that will enable students to live a life Jesus wants them to, even in the face of peer pressure, Gospel Light has created The Edge, a new Sunday School curriculum for grades 5 & 6/Ages 10-12. Launching in June 2005, The Edge is based on 24 key Bible passages that will help students understand the Christian faith and apply Bible truths to their lives. By combining a teacher’s and student guide with comics, posters, DVDs and CDs, The Edge curriculum allows teachers to develop meaningful, mentoring relationships with their students and helps students build a strong foundation of faith in ways that captivate their interest. With The Edge, preteens can actively explore God’s Word and relate it to their lives. This curriculum will help preteens build a solid foundation to equip them for the challenging years ahead.
www.gospellight.com

Group’s FaithWeaver
The FaithWeaver family of resources from Group Publishing helps people of all ages—infants through adults—weave faith into their daily lives. Participants experience the same Bible stories in age-appropriate ways that appeal to all learning styles. This means discussions on the week’s Bible Point are taken beyond church walls and applied throughout the week. Everyone in the church and in their families is unified with the same Bible story and Bible Point. Using creative activities and guided student-to-student interaction, FaithWeaver Bible studies deliver solid Bible truth along with clear, real-life application. These 13-session Bible studies help learners build relationships with each other, their families and God as they make real-life choices based on the Bible. The FaithWeaver family of resources is a Christian growth resource system that includes Sunday school, children’s church, midweek and more.
www.faithweaver.com

Walk With Me from Faith Alive Christian Resources
Faith Alive Christian Resources has announced that sales of its Sunday school materials have increased 40 percent compared with the same period last year. The increase coincides with the introduction of the new Walk With Me curriculum, which was launched in July. The success of Walk With Meshows that churches want a curriculum that fits their theology. But they also want one that has solid pedagogy, engaging design, and is easy to teach. In the case of Walk With Me, that meant developing a curriculum that was engaging – yet stayed true to its Reformed/Presbyterian roots. Churches from various Reformed and Presbyterian denominations appreciate its approach and, in fact, make up more than half of the total sales. Walk With Me also is endorsed by Presbyterians for Renewal (PFR), an organization of about 3,000 churches within the Presbyterian Church USA.
www.WalkWithMeOnline.org

Workshop Zone from Cook Ministries
The Workshop Zone from Cook Ministries is a rotation model curriculum that transforms Sunday school into a faith adventure. Each Workshop Zone monthly unit provides eight workshops (four for 2nd and 3rd graders, and four for 4th and 5th  graders) that are deeply-rooted in a single Bible story. As kids rotate to a different workshop each week, they delve into the Bible story through exciting learning activities that allow God’s truth to engage all the pathways to their hearts and minds. This approach does not require workshop leaders to be all things to all kids. Volunteers teach workshops that spring from their particular gifts. The goal is to contribute to the faith development of the children andthe adults who work with them.
www.cookministries.com/nexgen