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 Lecture 6: The Saber-tooth Curriculum

Outcomes

• Define and explain Saber-tooth curriculum

• Relevance of Saber-tooth curriculum
• Name the founder
• Identify common practices in Saber-Tooth and PNG Curriculum
 Brief of Saber-tooth curriculum

• Founder of the curriculum – New Fist Hammer Maker

• Before the development of the systematic curriculum, people of New
Fist’s Tribe lived a Nomadic life style.
• As a community they had common needs, fears, etc. for survival.
• Looking at the needs of the tribe New-Fist initiated the first curriculum
called ‘The Saber-Tooth Curriculum’.
• The curriculum was specifically designed to meet particular survival needs
in the local environment.
• It included 3 subjects;
1. Saber-tooth-tiger-scaring with fire,
2. fish grabbing with bare hands and
3. woolly horse clubbing.
• The curriculum survived through resistance.
 Characteristics of New Fist Hammer Maker

The success of the new curriculum was the consequent of New-Fist’s

intelligence, hence he was labelled with the following;

• the first great educational statesman,

• theorist and practitioner,
• a thinker and a doer.
 Cont.

• Having developed a curriculum, New-Fist took his children with him as he

went about his activities.

• He gave them an opportunity to practice these three subjects.

• The children were excited to learn and that education was a success.
 Reform of Saber-tooth Curriculum and the System of Education

• For a long time people enjoyed the new systematic education.

• However, there were certain more conservative members of the tribe who
resisted the new, formal education.
• This is because conditions changed, and life which had once been so safe
and happy in the cave-realm valley became insecure and disturbing.
• The climate grew warmer. Ice melted and flooded the creeks causing it to
be muddy. Difficult to catch fish with bare hands as usual.
• The country grew wetter and unsuited to wild woolly horses.
• The new dampness in the air gave the sabre-tooth tigers pneumonia to
which they succumbed. They were replaced by ferocious glacial bears
appeared which were not afraid of fire and could not be driven away even
by the most advanced methods taught in the tiger-scaring courses in the
schools.
 Cont…

• The people developed new and advance methods to catch fish, snare the
antelopes and glacial bears.

• However, they contend that: Training to catch non-existent fish with

bare hands is the best way to achieve muscular coordination and agility;
training in clubbing horses that do not exist is an education in stealth and
ingenuity; practicing to frighten tigers that do not exist develops courage.

• These things are fundamental and sacred in education and must not be
changed.

• Hence, its clear that the past education was the foundation but the skills
were improved to meet the later needs. The teaching and learning
approaches were the same.
 Lessons we draw from this story

• "The moral of this story is that our present public education system was
designed for another age!

• We must change what, when, and how tribes people are taught if we are
going to close the gap between what schools now provide and what our
students need.

• Note!
• You can read the details of this story from the course
handbook.
 Summary

• New-Fist was a great educational statesman, theorist, and practitioner. He

was the founder of what is now curriculum.
• The first curriculum that he developed had three subjects and those
subjects were relevant in his time that was best applicable to the
community.
1. saber-tooth-tiger-scaring with fire,
2. fish grabbing with bare hands and
3. woolly horse clubbing.
 Cont.

• However, as time went by things changes and that means there is need for
change in practice. Thus adjustments were made to the old ways of doing
things and new and better approaches were engaged.

• The legend of New-Fist here shows how curriculum is adopted and how it
becomes irrelevant with changes in the real world.

• We can see from this legend how that schools are forced to teach students
material that they won't need and how the instruction is delivered in ways
that are behind the times.
 Tutorial questions

Tutorial questions

1. What is Saber-tooth curriculum and why was it developed?

2. Name the founder
3. Identify common practices in Saber-tooth and PNG Curriculum
4.What were the reasons for the change of the Saber-tooth curriculum?
5. Discuss Curriculum change and provide an example of an issue, threat,
problem or change that can influence curriculum reform in PNG. Provide an
example.

The end!!