The disciplines, the means by which knowledge is generated and organized, provide a logical framework for the selection and organization of curriculum content. Curriculum development based on the disciplines facilitates content selection and cooperation with scientists and is compatible with the training of teachers and public expectancies. A reception psychology of learning parallels the structure of knowledge as a guide to measuring the facilitative effects of disciplined learning. The present trend toward non-cognitive approaches under the rubrics of relevance and problems is self-defeating because it neglects the establishment of orderly and systematic habits of thought. The schools' role is development of literacy and transmission of culture embedded in the rudiments of formal knowledge; thus schools provide foundations for professional training as well as transmission of culture for the masses. A social problems approach to social studies curricula does not transmit knowledge, confuses the role of political action with schooling, and provides a simplistic approach to the solution of complex problems. Curriculum is and ought to continue to be a translation of theoretical knowledge based upon the separate disciplines. (Author/JH)