Although works related to curriculum planning may be traced back to the ancient philosophers as well as to writers of the 19th century, a number of published works mark 1918 as the real beginning of curriculum planning and development as a field of special study. The writings of Franklin Bobbitt, appearing in the 1920's, were particularly significant in establishing curriculum-making as a distinct field of study. Early curriculum specialists were inclined toward a simplistic mode of thought, regarding complex problems as solvable by such easy means as observing, measuring, or consensus. Curriculum criteria included the social utility of the courses offered, as well as two distinct dichotomies, one distinguishing school subjects as academic or practical and one distinguishing school populations as college preparatory or noncollege preparatory. A critical reexamination of the curriculum field's literary and practical inheritance is crucial if it is to become an increasingly meaningful field of study in its second half-century. (JK)