The Saber-Tooth Curriculum

The field of education is an ever-changing plain of opportunity. Since the ince

ption of education there have been different ideas of what should be taught in s
chools. The Saber-Tooth Curriculum holds that education started with fish-grabb
ing, horse-clubbing, and tiger-scaring long before reading, writing, and arithme
tic. After these original three subjects were established, it became difficult
to change the curriculum.
In Saber-Tooth Curriculum there are several different groups that characterize e
ducators. The most prominent character in the book is Dr. Peddiwell, a professo
r of the history of education. He is a representative of liberal educators
thos
e who value a broad knowledge of skills and challenging encounters with importan
t issues. Dr. Peddiwell holds a seminar at the bar in Tijuana to speak about the
pressing issue from his point of view: the development of education. Dr. Peddiw
ell challenges his former student, Raymond Wayne, to look at the example of Pale
olithic education and how it was developed (Peddiwell, 11-23). In Peddiwell s sto
ry we meet New Fist, a social meliorist. New Fist developed the first school an
d curriculum to improve his society. He began to catch glimpses of ways in which
life might be made better for himself, his family, and his group, (26). This is
the first notion of why we should have education at all and is still one of the
main educational goals professed by most institutions today. New Fist s basic cu
rriculum worked until an ice-age necessitated a change. Even though change was
needed, the tribe s education stagnated. Few wanted to think of new ways to meet
the basic needs beyond what was already taught. Luckily there was a group of Ne
w-Fist Radicals who came up with net-making, antelope-snaring, and bear-pitting.
The inventors of these new techniques thought they were indispensable to modern
existence and should be taught in school. (40) However, the majority of society
found this to be a ridiculous notion. They thought practical lessons had nothi
ng to do with school. It was argued that students needed the old standard subje
cts to develop emotional and behavioral qualities (40-43). So the society had i
ts first developmentalist educators, albeit slightly misguided. Eventually scie
ntific curriculum makers surfaced. They were the college professors who decided
to engage in scientific research in education by counting and measuring quantita
tively everything related to education which could be counted and measured (55).
They attempted to measure many unknowns and the results were not too successful
. How can you track the changes of the human mind?
The Saber-Tooth Curriculum is written as a personal narrative in parts and drama
tic monologue in others. The purpose is to draw the reader in and make it easil
y accessible to the audience. Peddiwell is presenting ideas that may not be tak
en well by some and using this format makes those thoughts more palatable.
The personal narrative sections are written as Peddiwell giving a lecture to Ray
mond Wayne at a bar in Tijuana. This seems a most unlikely place for serious ed
ucational discussion to occur. It allows the reader to ease into the ideas pres
ented during the second setting, Paleolithic times. By setting the educational
context in Paleolithic times the author distances himself enough from current ed
ucation that the reader can easily see the issues he has brought up in his lectu
re. There can be no political arguments since the story happened long ago. Ped
diwell avoids many issues of today by placing the story in schools so old we hav
e to stretch our imaginations.
Although the setting is in the distant past, it still is relevant today. Times
have changed since the debut of The Saber-Tooth Curriculum in 1939. Many distri
cts are still trying to live in the past with the curriculums they are using. S
ome of this is due to financial reasons new technology requires more money but w
e have to be on the frontline of what is happening in the world to keep educatio
n relevant. When this book was written technology was in its infancy. Now many
fields required advanced technical knowledge and highly specialized skills.

Peddiwell uses the book as a platform for three main points. First that educati
on is great, but must be relevant to the times (37-44). Without a relevant curr
iculum we are doing our students a disservice. The basics are great, but must b
e something that is applied to the newer aspects of our society. We must know h
ow to spell and write, but in current times students must also learn to type. T
he second point Peddiwell makes is that there are definite shortcomings in teach
er training (50-57). He points to the three things higher education did to make
the field of education respectable: organize it systematically, use scientific
research, and make the subject hard to learn. Throughout college, the theory of
education comes before practical application. It is difficult to see the why b
efore you have seen it in action. He also argues that teacher training has beco
me extremely specialized within subject areas, leaving gaps of broad ignorance i
n the other areas of education (55). Today there is a huge amount of specialize
d knowledge required to be successful in a chosen field such as chemical enginee
ring. Having a general science background is not enough to succeed, but a gener
al background of other subjects is useful. The third point of the book is that
education must be purpose-driven and not allowed to get lost in red-tape (137).
So many teachers lose their drive because they do not see the purpose of what t
hey are teaching or they cannot convince their students of the materials purpose.
Red-tape is another reason many teachers give up. Filling out paperwork takes
hours of time that could be spent on developing dynamic lessons that would igni
te student interest.
My first reaction to this book was that it was ridiculous a lecture at a bar in
Central America about cavemen could have nothing worthwhile to say. As I kept r
eading I realized that I agree with two of the three main points discussed above
. We have to keep our curriculum relevant to today. That is why I integrate ma
ny living composers into the music we study. So many kids think that the orches
tra only plays music of dead white men.
It is so funny to see their faces when I
tell them that the composer is teaching at a middle school just like ours or I s
how them a picture of someone younger than me! This book makes me want to integ
rate all the amazing music technology that has come about in the past ten years.
Of course that costs money that the school district does not have for my progr
am since it is not a STAAR-tested subject. The point about red-tape has really
hit home this year. One of our science teachers was trying to arrange a field t
rip for the kids to see in action something they were studying. The first respo
nse from the field trip coordinator was no because they were not studying that T
EK at that moment. So the teacher tried to reschedule for the week they were wo
rking on that particular TEK. Denied again, this time because it was the week b
efore CBA testing. The students would remember the concept much better experien
cing it in action than just seeing it in the book and lecture, but red-tape prev
ented them from doing so.