Goal

The word goal has uncertain origins. Perhaps people have not always been as interested in goals as we seem to be today. If there is no need for a word, it doesn’t get created.
 
The first appearance of the word goal, seen as gol, is from a poem of the early 14th century, and refers to a boundary or a limit. This word gol may come from Old English gal (obstacle, barrier) and gaelan (to hinder). 
 
The use of the word goal as the end point of a race is from the 1530s, perhaps from the earlier use of gol as a boundary (or finish line?). Goal, in the sense of where, for example, you have to put the ball in order to score, is from the 1540s.
 
More generally, goal meaning the object of any effort is also from the 1540s. Interestingly, and perhaps not coincidentally, in Western Europe this is also the time of the Reformation and the beginning of modern thinking in relation to the individual and individual responsibility for actions (“What is my goal? What am I going to do about this?”).
 
In brief, the use of goal is first seen in relation to sports and games. The more general sense of a goal as the object of effort comes later.
 
What about the use of the term ‘goal’ in a curriculum? Given that the word curriculum has its origins in words related to running, perhaps it is not surprising that the early use of the word goal to mean a finish line for a race also came to mean the ‘finish line’ for a curriculum!
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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