Enormous sympathy with this. My frustration in the classroom is having to leave good questions aside because we have a curriculum to follow, with standardised tests every so often to demonstrate learning and government league tables related to them and so money and parental esteem etc etc.
"In a classroom, when 30 students each have good questions, 29 of them will be frustrated. In fact, they may all be frustrated, since teachers are bound by the curriculum to march endlessly onward in a very particular direction. But students' curiosity tends to go in directions for which teachers have not planned. In today's schools, teachers' plans are pre-ordained. The curriculum dictates the teacher's plan. The plan, not the individual ideas or questions of the student, dictates how the lesson proceeds. Curiosity and curriculum are antithetical concepts."
As it happens, it's worth looking at the rest of this online book, not only because of the contents but because of the way it is delivered: it's great to follow ones own curiosity about the questions it raises rather than having to follow closely the author's linear development of the arguments. Much food for thought but it's inspiring me.
Curiosity vs. Curriculum:
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