What is meant by 'curriculum'?

It was interesting to read about the implicit curriculum. This makes me reflect on what I learned as a student. Socialization, professionalism, organization, behavior in class, respect, conflict resolution, and more were all learned implicitly in the classroom. On the other hand, teaching about mathematicians, all who are male, may implicitly make students believe that mathematicians are all male. This makes me ponder about what I want my students to learn as a high school teacher. It also speaks to the amount of responsibility I have in the classroom as a teacher to be inclusive and encouraging to students of diverse backgrounds.

Reading about the null curriculum has got me thinking about how many students leave high school without knowing important life skills like cooking, social skills/ettiquette, budgetting, and doing one's taxes. I guess one can argue that there is not sufficient time in the curriculum or that parents are expecting academic content, but these skills are just as and if not more important than the academic content we learn in school. As a homecook myself, I am noticing that as years pass by, fewer individuals grow up knowing how to cook. It is quite shocking. If not taught in school, who is responsible to teach such life skills? Perhaps parents? And if parents lack the time to do so, how will students learn such skills? I think that schools are responsible for students to learn the null curriculum. Although they may not teach it, they need to effectively communicate with parents about students' well-being and how the null curriculum can be eventually picked up and worked into their set of everyday skills.

Overall, this reading has expanded my thoughts on what "curriculum" actually means. I have always thought of curriculum as the academic content taught in the classroom, but I never thought about the fact that students learn many things implicitly in the classroom and hallways at school. The BC curriculum has been designed so that it is malleable and can give teachers room to teach what they want to teach, as long as they lead students toward the curricular competencies. That being said, teachers have the freedom to teach parts of the null curriculum that did not used to be taught, such as taxes and budgeting under financial literacy. Teachers can design their own inquiry projects for students to explore these important life skills under the context of the subject they are learning. This allows teachers to be creative in instilling the values and skills they want their students to learn whilst in the classroom.