Some historical notes on the curriculum of the Ross School
by Ralph Abraham, Easter Sunday, 12 April 1998
Revised Saturday, 09 may 1998

CHRONOLOGY

October 1994: RHA book -- Chaos, Gaia, Eros -- appeared.
April 1995: Interview of RHA by Allan Hunt-Badiner appeared in Yoga Journal.
June 1995: Meeting of CSR and RHA in Santa Cruz, RHA visit to TRS
July 1995: Meetings of CSR, RHA and Irene Tully in Carmel Valley, CA
	CSR and RHA fly to Crestone, CO to recruit WIT (William Irwin Thompson)
August 1995: Conference at TRS on the new curriculum, publication as a book

NOTES

The chief characteristic features of TRS Curriculum were set during the July 1995 meetings:
  * World cultural history mapped onto the grades, for example:
	1st grade: late paleolithic
	2nd grade: mesolithic, agricultural revolution, gardens
	5th grade: early city states (Babylon, Egypt)
	6th grade: the Greek miracle
	11th grade: the present, computer revolution, chaos theory
	12th grade: the future, senior thesis project
  * Major bifurcations as analysed by RHA and WIT in their books mapped onto the primary stages of childhood development according to Piaget.
  * Overall mission: prepare children to be effective 21st century citizens
  * Special "threads" for American history, languages, wellness, etc
  * Weaving metaphors and the spiral as icons of the program
See the book for more details for this first draft of the program.

Presenters at this conference included WIT,
who then became the chief architect of the program as it developed further.

end