Volume I of the N.C.T.E. Curriculum series attempts to do
three things: (1) to give an overview of the curriculum in
English Language Arts from the preschool through the grad-
uate school, (2) to bring the best thinking in the field to bear
upon major issues faced by curriculum committees through-
out the country, and (3) to describe as illustrative for local
committees a method of approach to curriculum-making
found useful in this study.

Many factors have contributed to the need for reëxamina-
tion of the program in English at all levels of instruction. One
is the changing concept of learning brought about by the
study of human development. Language power is recognized
today as a part of all growth. Words acquire meaning in rela-
tion to broadening experience. Social as well as linguistic
factors inhere in improved methods of communicating. Se-
quence in learning depends upon continuity of growth in the
learner. Developing a program in the language arts today
may be likened less to building a wall by carefully laying
brick upon brick than to nurturing growth in a tree by enrich-
ing the soil, furnishing the proper environment, and judi-
ciously pruning as certain branches get out of control. The
problem is not so much one of looking at English and deter-
mining the order of topics to be studied as it is of looking at
the learner and the society of which he is a part and aiding
his growth both in and through the elements of reading, lis-
tening, and expression necessary to effective living today.

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