Powerprep: "It is unfortunate that today's educators place so much emphasis on finding out what students want to include in the curriculum and then giving it to them. It is the educator's duty to determine the curriculum and the student's duty to study what is presented to them"

In an age of rapid change in technology and society, in turn, brought about by globalization, industrialization and the internet, both students and educators need to work hand in hand to determine new and relevant curricula.

The pace of technology these days has resulted concomitantly in rapid social changes and it is typical that the youth are first-adopters of new trends and end up having a prescient sense for things to come. The plethora of web companies that have sprung up in the last few years (MySpace,YouTube, Second Life to name a few) are founded by young entrepreneurs who arguably are in a much better position to sense the social, political and technological demands of the internet demographic.

Also students, by virtue of having a direct pulse over demand seem to be in better touch with trends. I remember, when I was in school that while professors (teaching the more traditional subjects in engineering) were condemning the nascent software industry as 'fleeting', 'ephemeral'. Friends and seniors in school, however, were getting multiple offers from software companies and often commanded high starting salaries. The trend in software still continues. While educators are often justifiably cautious of fad's that might be shortlived, they can also end up responding late to important trends.

Having said that, educators without a doubt, have the final say in determining curriculum. Educators by virtue of experience, have a broader eagle's-eye view of the landscape and are in a better position to discern longer lasting trends from fleeting ones. They have various resources that they could use if they chose to get a better feel for the landscape, even a rapidly changing one. Student surveys, industrial surveys, blog surveys, internet surveys can all be used as advanced warning systems that can aid in being proactive about new curricula that can make an impact.

Ultimately however in the real world, the issue of deciding curricula can benefit from both student input (which are good at spotting organic trends) as well as expert input (usually structured, refined and more mature). If the premise of the topic is true, it seems unfortunate that educators place an overemphasis on what students demand, without due consideration to expert opinion (eg: curricular rigor). However, while it is indeed the educator's duty to determine the curriculum and while it might be the student's duty to study what is presented to them, it doesn't mean the two cannot act as effective inputs in deciding relevant and meaningful curricula.