These are my ideas for a new type of school curriculum. This is just an overview and the subjects, of course, would need to be taught in an age appropriate way, which I haven’t done here. Ideally, the student would pick from each subject what interested them.
1. gun safety
– pretend vs. real guns
– do not touch
– leave the area
– never play with a real gun
2. mental health
– activity therapy
– recreational exercise outside (hiking, tennis, etc.)
– journaling
– relaxation
– arts and crafts
– music therapy
– camping
– expressive therapy (self expression through creative expression)
(excited, tender, scared, angry, sad, happy)
– art
– dance
– drama
– role play
– writing
– film based
– poetry
– play
– sandplay
– dreamwork
– cognitive behavioral therapy
– thinking of problems and solutions
– writing self-statements to counter negative thoughts
– new opportunities to think positive thoughts
– visualizing the best part of the day
– learn to accept disappointment as part of life
– dialectical behavior therapy
– mindfulness: observe, describe, participate
– distress tolerance
– emotion regulation
– interpersonal effectiveness
– meditation
– lie comfortably
– close your eyes
– breathe naturally
– focus on breath
– notice your body
– return to your breath when your mind wanders
– do for 2-3 minutes
3. time management
– environment conducive to effectiveness
– setting priorities
– carrying out prioritization
– reducing time on non-priorities
– incentives to modify behavior
4. sports
5. music (theory)
– pitch
– scales and modes
– consonance and dissonance
– rhythm
– melody
– chord
– harmony
– timbre
– dynamics
– articulation
– texture
– form
– expression
– notation
6. dance (performance)
– concert dance
– latin/rhythm
– swing
– traditional jazz
– ballroom
– freestyle
– hip hop
– disco
7. theater (acting)
– classical acting
– stanislavski’s system
– method acting
– meisner technique
– practical aesthetics
8. fine arts (drawing)
– materials
– graphite
– charcoal
– pastels
– marker
– pen
– ink
– technique
– holding a pencil
– shading
– line weight
– checking
– is it ever finished?
– tone
– light and dark
– form and proportion
– measuring
– dots and lines
– perspective
– artistry
– negative space
– viewing art from artists
– process
– motor function
– perception
– visual memory
9. applied arts (mixed media)
10. agronomy (agricultural science)
– producing plants
– using plants
– environmentalism
– resources
– energy supply
– waste and pollution
– habitats and species
11. geography
– physical
– human
– integrated
– geomatics
– regional
12. languages (linguistics)
– lexicon
– discourse
– dialect
– structures
– relativity
– style
13. writing (non-fiction)
– expository (explaining or informing the reader about a certain topic)
– argumentative
– background
– thesis
– 3 claims
– evidence for each claim
– opposing views (2)
– refutation of 2 opposing views
– conclusion
– opinion
– both sides of argument
– opinions
– reasons for opinions
– examples to support reasons
– conclusions
– essay
– introductory
– body
– transitions
– conclusion
– biography
– research
– reading works already written about the subject
– interviews
– visit places significant to the subject’s life
– explore what interested, influenced and inspired the subject
– study the time and place of the subject’s life
– analyzing the subject’s life
– look for patterns
– thesis statement
– decide how to recount the person’s life
– narrative
– write
– drafts
– get someone to read it
– proofread
– title
– sources
– publish
– memoir
– memories
– historical
– outline
– scientific
