"Not long ago, the idea of curriculum for pre-school children was controversial.  Some felt that a curriculum would make programs too structured.  They argued that the curriculum emerged each day if teachers created well-organized classrooms and responded to children's interests.  Others thought that the curriculum should offer a scope and sequence of skills to be learned with specific daily activities.  One reason for the controversy was the lack of universally accepted definition of curriculum for young children."  
     "[Today], The Creative Curriculum is designed for early childhood programs serving children ages 3-5.  It rests on a firm foundation of research and responds to new requirements for addressing academic content.  while keeping the original environmentally based approach. . . , it defines more clearly the vital role of the teacher in connecting content, teaching and learning for pre-school children.  Left unchanged are the two features that distinguish The Creative Curriculum from other approaches:  [their] framework and [their] focus on interest areas."
     The Pre-School Program of Carteret County has adopted The Creative Curriculum. It supports the idea that children learn through play and that interest areas or centers foster growth and development.  Creative Curriculum also breaks development into four categories:  social/emotion, physical, cognitive, and language.