Asking teachers to read directly from a scripted curriculum is like asking artists to ‘paint by numbers.’

Schools and school districts spend a lot of money on scripted curricula. They often tout that these scripts make sure every student learns the same material in the same way. Some people defend scripted lessons. They say, “It saves teachers time.” “You don’t have to be an expert to teach it.” “Parents and administrators can relax knowing everyone’s teaching the same thing.” They only see the positive side.

But those who support scripted curricula often overlook the many negatives — the ways that teaching from scripts minimizes students’ learning experiences and reduces the quality of education they receive.

Teachers are trained professionals who spend four to six years, at minimum, learning how to design lessons that meet the needs of all learners. Teachers understand a basic truth: what works beautifully for one group of students might fall flat or completely fail with another. Every class has its own rhythm, interests, and challenges. Different groups have different levels of background knowledge, learning styles, and ways of engaging with the material.

Scripted lessons often teach to the “average” student, completely missing the mark for those who need more challenge or additional support. They also assume that every student begins with the same background knowledge, which is rarely the case.

Background knowledge refers to the information, experiences, and vocabulary that students bring with them to the classroom. For example, students who live in inner-city environments may have little experience with rural life, while those in rural areas may not understand urban experiences. Urban students may not relate to tractors, livestock, or harvesters. Rural students may struggle to imagine riding a subway, taking a taxi to school, or living in a high-rise apartment. Scripted lessons ignore these differences and assume that every child shares the same frame of reference.

When teachers are required to read from scripts, it lowers teaching to the lowest common denominator. It sends the message that teachers cannot be relied upon to provide engaging, intellectually stimulating instruction without reading from a prewritten script or that they are not professionally knowledgeable enough to do so. It also makes the unfair assumption that teachers have hidden agendas or are trying to do something inappropriate in the classroom.

Most of all, it implies that teachers cannot be trusted to teach accurately and must be controlled by others “higher up” in order to do their jobs correctly. This approach allows administrators and community members with particular agendas to dictate exactly what is said and how it is said in every classroom. It creates a system built on micromanagement rather than professional trust, reducing teachers to mere ‘script readers’ instead of skilled professionals.

Scripts also prevent what teachers call teachable moments. These are the times when a student asks an insightful question or makes a thoughtful observation that opens the door to deeper learning. These moments are often the most powerful and memorable parts of education. Scripted lessons destroy them by requiring teachers to stay on the page instead of following genuine curiosity and discovery.

When a teacher is required to use a program exactly as written, without any changes or adaptations, it is called “teaching with fidelity.” When teaching is reduced to reading word-for-word from a script, with no differentiation, no enrichment, and no flexibility, we might as well have students listen to a recording. It strips away the teacher’s unique contributions—their knowledge, creativity, and ability to connect lessons to students’ lives. It removes everything that makes learning meaningful and memorable.

I once worked in a school that required us to follow five separate language arts scripts within a single 1 hour and 50 minute reading block, timed down to the minute. Four minutes for one program, twelve for the next, and so on. If a student did not understand something, we were told simply to reread the section of the script, not to explain it in another way that might actually help them. To keep students “engaged,” we were told to have them move between the carpet and their desks between scripts. This was supposed to provide movement and reduce boredom, but it did little to achieve either.

We were required to follow these scripts “with fidelity,” meaning no changes, no additions, no enrichment, and definitely no creativity.

And for anyone who believes this approach saves time, it does not. We still had to write complete lesson plans with learning objectives, standards, assessments, and reteaching plans, even though we could not use our own ideas. We could not simply note the assigned page numbers or materials. Each week, teachers were still required to submit detailed six-page lesson plans by Friday afternoon.

If scripted lessons are truly the best way to teach, then why not sit students in front of a screen and have them watch one teacher read the script written for the entire nation? Because that is not how children learn. Real learning happens when a trained, experienced teacher observes how students respond, adjusts in the moment, reacts and reteaches based on student questions, and finds creative ways to make lessons engaging and relevant.

Teaching is both an art and a science. Scripts take away both.
When teachers are trusted to teach authentically, they bring lessons to life. They build curiosity, adapt to each student’s needs, and create connections that last long after the test is over. The best classrooms are living, breathing spaces where knowledge grows through interaction, trust, and discovery, not through reciting someone else’s words.

The post Teaching Without Trust: How Scripted Lessons Undermine Learning appeared first on Jan Mariet's A Day in the Life.