Arts-based curriculum

More broadly, the teachers we interviewed aigued that a strength of the arts-based curriculum is that it provides opportunities for all children to learn together because of the nature of the learning tasks involved. For example, one teacher noted that philosophy lessons are accessible Because they [children] can all listen and they can all speak. So they start at the same level, and there is a real sense of equality . Another teacher described a science lesson which focused on the habitats of different animals. She chose to teach this through the medium of dance. 

Finally, the arts-based curriculum also appears to be an important means of respecting and including all children. In interviews, staff argued that it allows children access to a wider world from which they would otherwise probably be excluded both socially and economically. One member of staff explained ... 

The points above may seem to present a rather rosy view of the school. As noted earlier, some lessons we observed were actually fairly conventional in their structure, content and presentation. Also, managing the classroom behaviour of a few children seemed to be of real concern for some staff, who argued that a small number had the potential to disrupt the learning of many others. Furthermore, the family lives of some children were particularly difficult and complex and this too had an impact on their experiences at school. Nevertheless, the culture of Amadeus seems to be shaped by its arts-based curriculum which is premised on valuing all children and believing that each one can achieve in his/her own way. The role of the headteacher in leading and maintaining this core philosophy should not be underestimated. 

In other ways, however, Amadeus may be considered to be rather unusual in that its arts-focused, project-based curriculum is atypical of many schools both locally... 

Regardless of the ridicule, Hartmann s instruction in the art of chymiatry (chemical medicine) was one of the earliest examples of laboratory-based chemical teaching within a university curriculum. We know a lot about Hartmann s classes because a description of the rules for his laboratory (students were required to leave their swords at the door) and an account of the procedures taught to his students still exist for two semesters in 1615 and 1616. From this account, it is clear that Hartmann relied a great deal on recipes adopted from one of the most popular Paracelsian formularies of the early seventeenth century, the Royal Chemistry (1609) of Oswald Groll (ca. 1560-1609). 

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