Curriculum Creep and “Expert Blindness”
When educators and subject-matter experts sit on curriculum review committees, they often bring their own accumulated knowledge—the stuff they worked years to master. There’s a natural tendency to assume: “If I know this, students should too.” That’s a kind of expert blindness. They forget what it was like not to know, and they sometimes misjudge developmental readiness. Over decades, this leads to what we might call curriculum creep—more facts, more standards, more requirements, until education becomes overstuffed.
Development vs. Expectation
Developmental correctness means pacing content so it matches children’s cognitive, emotional, and neurological growth stages. Expectation correctness means pacing content so it matches what adults (universities, employers, policymakers) wish children already knew.
Modern curriculum tilts heavily toward the second. We pile on skills “just in case” they’ll need them later, rather than focusing on depth, mastery and readiness.
The Result
Students often experience school as an information dump, rather than a wisdom-building journey. Teachers feel torn between coverage (hitting every benchmark) and comprehension (ensuring actual learning). Parents see kids stressed by loads of “stuff” that doesn’t feel meaningful or age-appropriate.
The Deeper Philosophical Question
It becomes a question of purpose: Is education about equipping children with everything they might need someday, or about cultivating the capacity to learn, think and grow at the right time? One vision creates encyclopedias with legs. The other develops adaptable humans who can learn what they need when they need it.
