Curriculum as Spiritual Experience

The phrase “curriculum as spiritual experience” can be defined as whatever brings an individual into heightened awareness of her or his relationship with the Infinite, the reality that lies beyond all thinking. However, many other definitions are both possible and plausible, depending on differing points of view about underlying ideas, beliefs, and assumptions.

The curriculum is commonly conceived as identical to or synonymous with the course of study, a body of material presented to the student to learn. As such, it is something that can be planned and written down, can remain forever unchanging, and can exist independently of the consciousness of the student. However, as John Dewey made clear during the first half of the 20th century, the curriculum can also be conceived in a deeper way, as the experience of the student in response to the course of study (or, in a larger sense, in response to the entire environment of the school, or even in the largest possible sense, in response to everything that happens to an individual throughout an entire lifetime). In this latter conception, the curriculum is the individual, ever-changing, and sometimes conscious experience of the student. A major dilemma for the field of curriculum studies lies in determining which of these two concepts to adopt. What, for example, is gained and lost by each? Can, in fact, both concepts of curriculum be held simultaneously or sequentially? What do such questions about the fundamental nature of curriculum studies imply about classroom practice?

All curriculum is experience, and all experience is spiritual. This statement is not conjecture based on Dewey. It is true because any curriculum is a way of apprehending the world, and all ways of apprehending the world are incomplete. Thus, there is always some sense of mystery about experience, something that is beyond human perceptions or ability to comprehend, such as the infinitude of time and space within which each person lives a finite life. Spiritual experience—or more simply, spirituality—is that part of one's life that brings one into increasing awareness of one's relationship with the Infinite. The relationship is always there, within the mystery of individual experience whether one is aware of it or not. The task of any specific curriculum is to draw the student into a deepening awareness of the student's relationship with the Infinite, reality, God, or any other name one chooses to put upon that fundamental, underlying truth about living. Depending on the dispositions of individual students, this task may be approached in a variety of ways. For instance, one student may be captured by the beauty and logic of mathematics; another, by the complexities of Shakespeare's worldview.

To be spiritual means three things: being in a relationship, being aware of that relationship, and being open to change because of that relationship. The relationship is with the Infinite, of course, the never-ending expanse of time and space, of everything beyond oneself that cannot be fully comprehended rationally. Some people recognize the relationship more directly and fully than do others. Those who most recognize the relationship stand in awe before the ultimate mysteries of the universe. When this recognition has reached a sufficient level of intensity, that which may have been recognized intuitively and directly may become conscious awareness. As Maxine Greene has pointed out for curriculum studies, intuitive experience, conscious experience, and aesthetic experience can merge into one grand way of comprehending reality. Therefore, curriculum studies must conceive itself as comprehensively as possible and remain ever-attentive to how students may be led toward increasingly transcendent forms of experiencing.

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