High School Skills

Big ideas and plans come pretty easy to me. The really interesting ones I’ll kick around and modify for years. For example, designs for my dream house went from ensuring I had bay windows, to roller coasters, to cages for tawny frogmouths.

One idea I’ve been working on for a few years was what classes every student should come out of high school with. If I designed a four-year curricula for a school, what would be covered, what skills learned?

So here’s the breakdown, with explanations for why these classes are included:

There are seven period a day, fifty minutes each with a fifty-minute lunch break. If class begins at 8, we’d be out before 3.

Freshman year:

Visual Art. Options: Photography, Ceramics, Drawing and Painting, or Sculpture. If we value art as a society we must expose our children to it. And really, it’s not difficult to get most kids excited about art. It’s a natural human creative output, and should be fostered through these years for their development.

Feminism and Gender Studies. As we move forward in society we need to address this early on, not only as something you can optionally take in college. This class is best suited for Freshmen, to get it out of the way and not create a school-wide stigma of taking it ‘when older’. If we teach biology to Freshmen, they can handle this.

Health, Anatomy and Physiology. Now a standard science credit, it pairs nicely with the above, which will be dealing with the differences between sex, gender, and orientation. Health is often a state requisite, and needed for the current generation. By starting with the body you set a groundwork for Biology as well.

Physical Education. Should be a mix of sport and fitness-based activity. Will be required for three of four years.

Poetry and Creative Writing. A year-long English class, that covers these forms, allowing for novels and drama to be covered in classes later. An introductory class, that helps students with writing foundations and literary analysis that they’ll take with them into upper-level courses.

Performing art. Options: Music – vocal, Music – instrumental, Dance, Theater. Like visual art, it doesn’t take much to get kids interested in performing arts. The majority are tuned in to music, love to dance, or identify as actors early on. To foster this appreciation leads to personal and societal benefits.

Multiculturalism. A history-credit survey course of major world cultures, designed to inculcate tolerance for a globalized generation. Would also take some burden off of world history their Sophomore years, as they’d have basic familiarity with these cultures and their differing values. It would include contemporary culture of: India, China, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and more.

Sophomore year:

World Civilizations/World Literature. A combined, two-period long, English and history set of credits. World history would be taught in standard chronology, while English matched it with world literature.

Physical Education. Should be a mix of sport and fitness-based activity. Will be required for three of four years.

Algebra. A basic understanding of algebraic equations and problem-solving. This fosters certain mental abilities and skills that are necessary for advanced neural development, and lays a groundwork for higher mathematics.

Environmental Science. A full year of learning about ecosystems, man’s role in the world, and what needs to be done for the future. Basic biology will be covered in this course as it applies to the subject matter.

Oratory and Rhetoric. To ensure an ability to speak, be understood and create meaningful confidence in front of peers or strangers. To learn how to identify certain types of rhetoric and arguments, and how not to be convinced by the last thing you heard.

Visual Art. Options: Photography, Ceramics, Drawing and Painting, or Sculpture. If we value art as a society we must expose our children to it. And really, it’s not difficult to get most kids excited about art. It’s a natural human creative output, and should be fostered through these years for their development.

Junior year:

Physical Education. Should be a mix of sport and fitness-based activity. Will be required for three of four years.

Philosophical Ethics. A basic ethical study, encouraging students to inquire into their values and assumptions, and ask what should they do. Reaching from theology to atheism, communism to anarchy.

Psychology. A basic understanding of the human mind, how it’s thought patterns differ in groups, and how it develops. Two of the best classes I ever had were Social Psychology and Developmental Psychology. Wouldn’t it be nice if bystander effect became unusual, due to education?

American Literature. A basic survey of American literary achievements so the next generation is culturally literate.

American History. A basic survey of American historical achievements so the next generation is culturally literate.

Chemistry. No idea. Usually required.

Geometry. Teaches certain mental processing skills that lay a foundation for senior-year logic. Better for Juniors than Sophomores, who often regard it as the worst class they have to take, maths-wise.

Senior year:

Logic. A study of formal rules and arguments. After not getting trapped by rhetoric, this allows you to not get trapped by faulty reasoning, or be the spewer thereof .

Politics and Civics. Often a required course, civics lets people not be ignorant about how a democratic republic works and informs them of the role of governments, themselves as voters, the legal system, etc.

Physics. The most math-heavy science, by this age they could actually learn the real stuff, the non-Newtonian Relativity and Quantum Physics, in a basic way. It can inculcate a fascination with the universe. Some astronomy should also probably be thrown in.

Economics. That they may learn how money works, how markets operate, why bubbles must burst, how to budget for a home, and so forth.

Statistical Literacy. Numbers lie all the time. Learning a little something about stats and numbers will be really useful, that they may understand the Monty Hall problem, the likelihood of a lottery ticket paying off, and whether to hit on 16 in black jack.

Programming. Technological literacy mixed with vocational training for the computing field, could be more remedial for those with basic computer literacy issues. Would help with basic languages so students have some skills and basic IT abilities.

Performing art. Options: Music – vocal, Music – instrumental, Dance, Theater. Like visual art, it doesn’t take much to get kids interested in performing arts. The majority are tuned in to music, love to dance, or identify as actors early on. To foster this appreciation leads to personal and societal benefits.

Then at 3 you take a required after-school course. These would be one-semester in length, which could be replaced by a sport or dramatic production.

Cooking – learning about basic kitchen stuff, and being able to make more than ramen.

Recycling – committing to environmental sustainability, conscious of waste and output.

Maintenance – odd jobs around the campus, basic repairing and ownership of your space.

Gardening – where food comes from, emphasizing going local and organic food.

Carpentry – more advanced repair work, woodshop  skills and skill-building.

Community Outreach – keeping a positive presence for the school in the neighborhood.

Preschool – work with young children, basic parenting skills for infants, providing for the community.

Yearbook – working on a long-term project, creating an object that lasts.

These would meet twice a week, and the other two would have optional study halls, community meetings or other after-school activities (dances, etc). Friday afternoons would be off.

Homework should be no more than an hour a night, total. The school year should be the first week of September through June, with a winter break, and a spring break, each two weeks long, and a Thanksgiving long weekend. Other holidays may not be observed.

So that’s a rough sketch. Would you have wanted to go there?