1 Hidden Curriculum Sara Talib Al Balushi Al Ain University 0402524E: School Curriculum and UAE Curriculum Dr. Azhar Shater August 1, 2022 2 Hidden Curriculum There’s no overstating how impactful teachers are on students’ lives. Teachers spend about six hours per day with their students, watching their every move, and seeing them grow into adults. The majority believe that teachers only teach things that are related to the school curriculum. On the other hand, teachers play an integral role as second parents. After parents, teachers are the ones who are modeling values, beliefs, morals, and opinions that are external to the classroom. This concept of teaching is defined as the hidden curriculum which is the unintended and unspoken learning. The hidden curriculum affirms the belief that schools do more than simply transmit knowledge to the students. In this essay, I will situate my experiences and insights as a student and share examples of the hidden curriculum used inside the classroom. I vividly remember chitchatting with my fellow student on the first day of school. I’ve never been caught chitchatting during class time, but this time, I have. My face turned bright red when the teacher caught me. She softly stared at me for seconds, smiling, and proceeded with the lesson. Unlike the teachers that I had, they would find it disrespectful and yell at us. This teacher had a silent way of dealing with these particular situations. Whenever a student misbehaved, chit-chatted, or disturbed the class, she moved slowly from her desk toward them and the noise ceased. If a student struggled to answer a question, she gave him the right to pass to avoid embarrassment. She never challenged us with a task or ask us to answer publicly. Her silent approach helped to minimize our fear of feeling embarrassed or humiliated and encouraged us to feel comfortable taking risks in class. She treated us with respect and was mindful of our feelings. Her kindness and gentleness had an immensely positive impact on me. 3 In secondary school, grade seven, there was a student in our class who was anemic. She often looked worn out and not very alert at the end of the day. One time, she looked fatigued; her face was pale and her lips were slightly blue. The teacher asked if she would like to go to the restroom and come back when she feel better, and she agreed. As she walked toward the door, our teacher noticed that she was a bit lightheaded and off-balance. The teacher was too concerned to let her walk alone and escorted her to the nurse’s room to make sure that she gets there safely. After this incident, special consideration was given to her. The teacher seated the student near her desk to constantly make sure that she was okay, or close to the window where sunlight and cool breeze make her more attentive and awake. Whenever she felt a little run-down she would send her to the nurse’s room to get checked on. In science class, another student was hospitalized and missed a fortnight of school due to a car accident, and she received the same treatment. The teacher was worried and kept in touch with her parents. During the student's absence, the teacher kept a pack of notes to catch up. After she came back, the teacher downsized quantities, gave make-up sessions to compensate for the missed classes, and excused tests and homework to help her bounce back from the car accident. My gratefulness goes out to those two teachers who were the epitome of compassion and empathy. They did their utmost best to help the students feel better and compensate for the missed material. Special consideration was given to these students and built rapport and show them that they were in good care. They made time for the students without making them feel like a waste of their time. It is essential to build positive relationships with the students to help them feel belonged, loved, and 4 worthwhile. They taught me a vast number of invaluable things that were not in the curriculum, but in the example, they have set. Based on the examples I’ve accumulated over the years of school, the hidden curriculum had a positive impact on me as a student. Although I gained greatly from the written curriculum to the hidden curriculum, the unspoken perspective enriched my moral values and thoughts and inspired me to be a better human being. Being able to understand students' perspectives without having experience, and inspiring them through their moral and humane examples are indelible life lessons that no amount of textbooks will ever teach us.