Math Curriculum

I am somewhat amazed at times by how quickly school districts seem to cycle through different curriculums (in all subject areas, but math especially).  It makes me think a lot about curriculum and whether curriculum is better, than say, a teacher having a general facility with a subject area and an overview of what needs to be taught at a given grade level.  The constant cycling through curriculum makes me suspicious that we are searching for some sort of silver bullet.  A curriculum that serves every student everywhere.  This seems to fly in the face of everything we are learning in this program (that people learn differently) and probably in the face of a whole lot of plain, common sense.

I am not even sure it would be bad to have a curriculum..or at least a framework.  The problem I see (and that I have heard from a number of teachers) is that this constant cycling of curriculums means that they no sooner get comfortable with teaching a particular curriculum then they are thrown an entirely different curriculum.  One example is the Seattle Public School Districts change from TERC (more of a discovery math curriculum) to Everyday Math which spirals so quickly it leaves your head spinning.  But I digress.  Anyway, I think the issue is that when teachers get comfortable with something, if they are self reflective, they can then begin to manipulate the curriculum to fit the needs of more students.  The constant shifting however means that they are left to learn an entirely new curriculum which takes time to get used to teaching and time to see its flaws and the ways it does and does not serve students.  Unfortunately, I am not sure that the Districts adopting these curriculums understand that teachers need to have the independence and flexibility to work in and out of any given curriculum to meet the needs of their students.  Hence, in some places we get scripted curriculum.  What a travesty for students.