Session 2, Part 2: Determine What is "Lifeworthy"

Create Your Ideal Curriculum, Session 2: Decide What is Worth Learning

If one of our goals from this resource is to develop curriculum around bigger ideas, it would help that we introduce a conceptual framework that we can work within. 

David Perkins (2014) suggests the term “lifeworthy” as a concept to frame what it is we seek when we strive to teach students for today and tomorrow. He defines something as lifeworthy as “likely to matter in the lives learners are likely to live” (8). 

To expand on the term, Perkins offers an example from mathematics: quadratic equations. When speaking to educators, he asks how many people in the audience have actually used quadratic equations in their lives. Few if any hands go into the air. Then he asks if statistics and probability have been useful in their lives. Many hands go up. The point Perkins makes is we need to think more critically about how much time and attention each topic and skill receives during the school year.

That said, if a concept or a specific area of focus is a priority but may not initially be seen…