Japanese elementary school teachers are always saying they are busy. They have lots of stuff to do and far too much paperwork. So it always comes as a shock when I hear teachers saying they have to make to make their own English curriculum.

“Wow, you must have so much time free! How long does it take you to make a good curriculum?” I always ask teachers in workshops. Usually there’s one teacher who asks me how long it took to make the Genki English Curriculum. The answer? 10 years! And that’s working full time and with the support of 100s of teachers who send in suggestions. Of course you can make one in less time, but how good will it be?

Teaching English is quite easy, but making a curriculum is hard! You have to juggle what the kids want to say in English, how much can be taught in 45 minutes, how to progress from theme to theme, how to make the lesson fun, how to balance kids of different abilities etc. etc. etc. Even this week I added in the Do you like animals? theme, but I would have never even considered it if I hadn’t seen so many teachers making mistakes.

The reason teachers are asked to make curricula is because they know their kids best. But I think in just about every school I’ve been to the English is either something adults want to teach but kids don’t ever use ( e.g. “abc song”, days of the week or shapes) or at worst full of mistakes.

A lot of teachers have worked really hard on the Genki English curriculum over the years, and there’s a lot more to choosing the language than first appears, so why not save yourself some time and simply use the Genki English curriculum. After all you don’t make a car to take you to school every morning, so why try and make a curriculum when there is already one out there? Especially when you are so busy! It’s free, it’s flexible and above all it works really, really well. I’m sure the kids would prefer to spend that extra time with you.

I know if you asked me to make a curriculum for history or geography I wouldn’t have a clue where to even start!