Methodology · Frameworks
Educational frameworks
We reviewed 12 frameworks across pre-industrial and post-industrial eras and cultures. Each framework page shows what it covers — and where it conflicts with what developmental science says children actually need.
Frameworks that emerged before formal schooling — rooted in community, apprenticeship, and whole-child development.
Pre-agricultural, global — 300,000 BCE onward
Sub-Saharan Africa — oral tradition spanning millennia
Germany, 1919 — now 1,100+ schools worldwide
Rome, 1907 — now 20,000+ schools worldwide
Reggio Emilia, Italy, 1945 — influential worldwide in early childhood
Aotearoa New Zealand — Māori tradition codified as national curriculum 1996
Frameworks designed around industrial-era schooling — standardised, subject-divided, and measurable. Many remain dominant today.
England — statutory framework since 2008, revised 2021
USA — federal programme since 1965, serves ~800,000 children annually
USA — 2010, adopted by 41 states; increasingly contested
People's Republic of China — Ministry of Education, 2012
Singapore — ECDA framework 2012, revised 2022
Finland — FNBE core curriculum 2016; school start age 7