How hidden is the hidden curriculum?

In the late '50s (that would be the 1950s, thank you) I attended a new neighborhood elementary school in my hometown of Tecumseh, Michigan.  Small town America in the 1950s. School was nearby and we walked our rode our bikes; we went home for lunch and someone was there to make it for us; and we went home after school, changed our clothes and went out to play with friends until we were called in for supper. It sounds a little like an old episode of Ozzie and Harriet (please look it up if you don't know what this show was).

School was predictable and engaging enough, I suppose. I don't remember much about the curriculum of the elementary years outside of several soundbites that even 50 years later are vivid: Making Easter baskets in 4th grade; spelling bees in grade 4 and higher; naps in kindergarten. That's about it, but I do remember exactly what I learned in fifth and sixth grades.

In fifth grade, my teacher, Mr. W. was a veteran. While I must have learned any number of other things, what I remember most about fifth grade was his many war stories...which he told us every day. The single most vivid recollection of sixth grade was the time our entire class had to hand write, copy really, a paragraph about not acting up and getting in trouble when our teacher was out of the classroom. Mrs. G, our teacher, thought she was teaching us a great lesson by making us copy that paragraph 50 times...and she did. But after the numbness in my fingers wore off, I realized that my classmates and I did learn a life's lesson...but sadly, not the one Mrs. G. intended. The lesson we learned was that you shouldn't tell someone to do one thing and then not model that behavior in your own life. Why did we learn that lesson? Because as a teaching principal Mrs. G. was frequently out of our classroom seeing to her principal duties, leaving us, her sixth grade class, to our own devices. Sometimes that worked...but often it did not. If I had asked either Mr. W. or Mrs. G. what they intended to teach us those two years, I'm certain the lessons we learned were not what they intended. The "hidden" curriculum strikes again.

When I think about all the things kids learn in school...as well as how hard teachers work to have them learn those things, I wonder why the hidden curriculum is so strong and powerful. Is it because we don't often consider the unintended consequences of what we don't explicitly teach or because we ignore the real lessons right in front of us. For example, all the relationship issues that exist in an institution like school where so many different people co-exist. How can there not be a number of lessons learned there? This is the heart of the "hidden" curriculum, I believe.

And our students are watching us every step of the way...seeing how adults treat each other; how some teachers treat certain students with less care and respect than they deserve; how some groups (athletes, honor students, students from affluent families) receive favored or special treatment.

What other examples of the hidden curriculum should we be aware of? And how can we move it from hidden to a legitimate part of the curriculum?