If it's only Hidden, it's not a Curriculum
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Been thinking a bunch about the Hidden Curriculum lately. Which is to say I kind of think about the Hidden Curriculum all the time, just sometimes more than others.
Wrote some about it a year ago almost to the day (what it is).
And last summer (how it relates to uncertainty).
Still bought into the idea. Maybe more than ever.
But I’m definitely experiencing it from a completely new angle now.
Working with a new team at K&E means noticing front and center, day in and day out, what it’s like when my version of the Hidden Curriculum isn’t already pre-baked into everything.
And, yeah, that’s a bit of a wakeup call.
When Everyone Starts from the Same Spot
At the camp I started, Hidden Curriculum was (and still very much is) embedded in everything and anything that happened on the daily.
It was 100% normal to ask, “What’s the Hiddy Cricks here?”
Or more formally:
“What ideas are we taking for granted or assuming that others might not be making?”
It was an awesome hierarchical leveler. Gave everyone explicit permission to raise a metaphoric (or actual hand), or really say, “Jack you haven’t actually explained this dip shit”
Didn’t matter if they were new or had been there seven years. Didn’t matter if it was how the dining hall worked, what to say to parents, or what was ok to do on breaks.
The culture said: it’s all-the-way, 100% okay to ask.
It was almost like a video game. Everyone starting at the same intro level, in the game tutorial. Learn where to go, how the world works, what the rules are. Then you level up together.
That’s the ideal.
The real magic wasnt that we started from the same spot but that you earned status helping people understand
When you join an established culture, you’re not starting from level one. Everyone else is already mid-game. Or might even playing a slightly different game within your game.
They know the unwritten rules. The decision-making norms. The communication patterns.
And if those things aren’t explicitly named, you’re wandering the map looking for the next quest while everyone else is heading off to a castle on the other side of the game.
No Hiddy Cricks?
If it’s hidden curriculum only to me, it’s not a curriculum. It’s only hidden.
You can’t just believe in Hidden Curriculum as a concept. I have to actively build it into the culture.
Otherwise, it’s just, well… hidden.
At K&E, I have ideas about how things should work within the landscape of my style. About when decisions get made. How accountability functions. All the organizational yada-yada-yadas.
But if I am only thinking and not talking about these things, it kinda doesn’t matter.
And by the way everyone else is doing the same from their own perspective.
The hard part isn’t identifying what the Hidden Curriculum is. The hard part is making it visible.
And that takes time. Takes repetition. Takes creating language around it. Takes giving people permission to ask.
Can’t just pull up and announce something like “We value transparency!” and expect the culture to fall into lockstep right behind it. More have to build the scaffolding that makes transparency possible.
What I’m Trying
So what am I actually trying to do at K&E?
Build a camp operating system. Not just so I understand what makes the place tick, but so everyone is seeing it the same way.
What does accountability look like?
What does it mean to be a project lead?
When is it cool to ask for help, and who (exactly) do you ask?
How do we make big and small decisions, and how do we let everyone know that those decisions were made?
These aren’t galaxy brain questions. But they’re a starting point.
And the only way to answer them is to keep talking about them. To keep naming what’s usually invisible or taken for granted. To keep giving people permission to ask.
And that’s slow, but necessary, work.
It won’t happen in one training session or one staff meeting. It happens through repetition, through modeling, through creating language.
Through making it normal to say “What’s the hidden curriculum here?” Until it’s not just hidden. Until it’s actually a curriculum.
Heading into the New Year
Heading into 2026 (Happy Holidays and New Year everyone!), this is what I’m thinking about. Not just for me + K&E, but for any of us running or working at camps.
How explicit are we about the invisible rules?
How easy is it for someone new to ask, “How does this actually work?”
How often do we assume everyone just knows?
The Hiddy Cricks only make sense when everyone knows to look for them. Not just as a concept but as the way everything fits together.
That takes time. Takes repetition. Takes humility (ie not everyone might see things my way).
But it’s worth it.
Because when everyone has access to the same game, when everyone feels cool asking, when the invisible becomes visible?
That’s when we’re all headed to the same place on the map, with the same controllers, with the same goal in mind.
Then the Curriculum is no longer Hidden.
You got this,
Jack
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Get my newsletter every week.
It’s all about kids today
Jack Schott
Summer Camp Evangelist