Ideas for Required High School Courses

10 years ago

To add to yours.
Nutrition
Civics (non bias)
Environmental Science (again non bias)

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ThomM

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Ken_Caudill

Shop geometry and trigonometry.

Land navigation.

Garden planning.

Archery and riflery

I was thinking that gardening could be taught under environmental science. After all the environment starts with the soil.

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kenmichaels

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Ken_Caudill

Shop geometry and trigonometry.

Land navigation.

Garden planning.

Archery and riflery

I had rifle, shotgun, handgun and archery safety lessons.
Consisted of proper handling, cleaning and storage.

As far as I know, nobody that attended that mandatory class ever accidentally
shot themselves, relatives or friends.

funny how that works ... eh? :rolleyes:

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thunderbird

10 years ago

Interesting. For my son, almost 4, the courses he's getting are:
-- reading and writing
-- math: addition, subtraction, division
-- healthy eating practices (ie nutrition)
-- Concepts of where food we eat comes from including agriculture, manufacturing, packaging, distribution
-- Biology: plants, animals, ecosystems
-- Astronomy
-- Mandarin, spoken and written
-- martial arts
-- Singing
-- playing piano
-- filmmaking. We're making stop-action animated Lego movies together. He's learning about film sets, positioning the camera, stop-action animation, editing, sound.
-- Reading and explanations on "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli in order to understand power dynamics and the society we live in.
-- Compassion and the principle of setting high standards for himself but not expecting the same from others (to avoid being disappointed by such things as people failing to return money he lends).
-- The utmost importance of having fun in what he does, appreciating things, happiness.

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seasoned

10 years ago

Originally Posted by thunderbird

Interesting. For my son, almost 4, the courses he's getting are:
-- reading and writing
-- math: addition, subtraction, division
-- healthy eating practices (ie nutrition)
-- Concepts of where food we eat comes from including agriculture, manufacturing, packaging, distribution
-- Biology: plants, animals, ecosystems
-- Astronomy
-- Mandarin, spoken and written
-- martial arts
-- Singing
-- playing piano
-- filmmaking. We're making stop-action animated Lego movies together. He's learning about film sets, positioning the camera, stop-action animation, editing, sound.
-- Reading and explanations on "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli in order to understand power dynamics and the society we live in.
-- Compassion and the principle of setting high standards for himself but not expecting the same from others (to avoid being disappointed by such things as people failing to return money he lends).
-- The utmost importance of having fun in what he does, appreciating things, happiness.

I hope for your and his sake he keeps it up. Don't get us wrong, the US, last I knew, was SUPPOSED to teach, of the disciplines you mentioned that your son is covering:

General English

Math

Health(including nutrition, etc....)

Ideas of where food came from were taught in lower grades

Sciences(Covering chemicals, Humans, animal classes, astronomy, etc....)

2 to 3 years or more of foreign languages. It USED to be between Spanish, French, German, Italian, but now some schools teach other languages like mandarin.

-- martial arts <<< A common extracurricular activity apart from school

-- Singing <<< I THINK all schools used to have classes in at least the lower grades.

-- playing piano <<< I THINK all schools had classes where you could learn to play an instrument

Steve

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kenmichaels

10 years ago

Originally Posted by thunderbird

Interesting. For my son, almost 4, the courses he's getting are:
-- reading and writing
-- math: addition, subtraction, division
-- healthy eating practices (ie nutrition)
-- Concepts of where food we eat comes from including agriculture, manufacturing, packaging, distribution
-- Biology: plants, animals, ecosystems
-- Astronomy
-- Mandarin, spoken and written
-- martial arts
-- Singing
-- playing piano
-- filmmaking. We're making stop-action animated Lego movies together. He's learning about film sets, positioning the camera, stop-action animation, editing, sound.
-- Reading and explanations on "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli in order to understand power dynamics and the society we live in.
-- Compassion and the principle of setting high standards for himself but not expecting the same from others (to avoid being disappointed by such things as people failing to return money he lends).
-- The utmost importance of having fun in what he does, appreciating things, happiness.

Are you home schooling? Or is this some kind of extra
after school lessons.

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thunderbird 10 years ago

Originally Posted by kenmichaels

Are you home schooling? Or is this some kind of extra
after school lessons.

Home schooling and paid lessons, not government schooling.
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- seasoned 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by thunderbird
  
  Home schooling and paid lessons, not government schooling.
  
  Yeah, I suspected. ESPECIALLY since I don't imagine canada has too many mandarin classes.
  
  Steve
  
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seasoned

10 years ago

BTW you DO realize that a lot of present day gardening AND navigation requires basic math, right? Between proportions for fertilizer, basic mixes, or even determining the amount of soil. Just saying.

But dumbing down US society INTENTIONALLY, is not the answer. I bought a book a while back, and maybe I should remember in such cases to refer to it. It is called DUMBTH!

Dumbth: The Lost Art of Thinking With 101 Ways to...
Of course Rod serling wrote a novelized version long ago that spawned many movies, cartoons, TV series, etc.... Maybe you heard of it. It is called "Planet of the apes". There was time machine, and idiocracy. ALL speak of this sort of thing.

Steve

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Kurt

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Joe Mobley

Let me suggest some replacement courses:

Personal Finances 101 - Includes How to Balance Your Checking Account, Writing a Personal Budget, Explanation of Paycheck Stub Deductions, etc.

Business Finance 101 - In this course, individuals will create and build a small business. This course will be lead by instructors who have actually built businesses to profitability. No book-theory shhhhtuf here.

Individuals would not be allowed to advance to the 10th grade until these courses are completed successfully.

Just a thought.

Joe Mobley

Fractions and decimals are really the foundation of these business related courses. And it seems that fractions and decimals are where many people start to get lost with math. So, I'd really focus here.

If it were up to me and I was simply replacing some upper level math classes, in addition to a strong focus on fractions I'd go with:

Speed math - Improve the speed for adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, using tools like flash cards. IMO, repetition of the basics for many would be better than taking other math classes they don't understand. Could easily use games and competitions to make it fun, as well as effective.

Logic - enough said.

Probability - Based on fractions and percentages, probability is a particular study of math that can greatly help in day to day life and business. It can also be taught in interesting ways, using dice and casino games.

Understanding probability can really help with risk vs reward, and risk management, and is "probably" about as close to being able to teach common sense as there is.

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Dennis Gaskill

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Kurt

Logic - enough said.

Beat me to it.

To that I would like to add basic morality and manners - simple things like respect for others, kindness, and integrity - some of these kids aren't being taught any of that at home. It would have to be done outside of any religious context, and it could be.

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thunderbird

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill

Beat me to it.

A triad based on triarylamine donors, an iridium dipyrrin sensitiser and a naphthalene diimide acceptor is investigated using fs-pump–probe spectroscopy at two different pump wavelengths. Excitation of the naphthalene diimide induces a stepwise electron transfer process that yields within ca. 100 ps a charge separated state with 50–60% quantum yield in which one triarylamine is oxidised and the imide is reduced. Although being in the Marcus normal region, this state has a lifetime of 580 ns in MeCN. Excitation at the dipyrrin ligand centred absorption directly produces the charge separated state within ca. 1 ns however without formation of an intermediate. This pseudo-concerted two-electron transfer step was analysed with the help of a model dyad and a modified triad and is interpreted to be caused by inverted electron transfer rates. Although being much slower the latter process has a quantum yield of practically 100%.

Thanks for sharing this (though it is a counterfactual assertion that the party whom I am addressing did promulgate such vernacular). Is that another way of saying, "Things happen"? If so, yeah, that's what I'm talking about!

Originally Posted by socialentry

<snip>
Thunderbird to the rescue!

The truth is that I'm not a great ambassador to any beliefs. Every belief system has it's alpha representatives -- I'm not one of them. Just for the record, I am also not making suggestions on how the school system curriculum should be altered. I wouldn't even suggest that the approaches I'm using to teach stuff to my son would work with other children. Basically, what I teach him arose out his own curiosity about those topics. After watching several episodes of the "Dog Whisperer" and how what works for one dog would utterly fail with another, it would be silly that there would be a one-size-fits all approach to educating children.

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HeySal

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Kurt

Fractions and decimals are really the foundation of these business related courses. And it seems that fractions and decimals are where many people start to get lost with math. So, I'd really focus here.

If it were up to me and I was simply replacing some upper level math classes, in addition to a strong focus on fractions I'd go with:

Speed math - Improve the speed for adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, using tools like flash cards. IMO, repetition of the basics for many would be better than taking other math classes they don't understand. Could easily use games and competitions to make it fun, as well as effective.

Logic - enough said.

Probability - Based on fractions and percentages, probability is a particular study of math that can greatly help in day to day life and business. It can also be taught in interesting ways, using dice and casino games.

Understanding probability can really help with risk vs reward, and risk management, and is "probably" about as close to being able to teach common sense as there is.

You betcha. I took a full year of it and there's nothing like it. It also helps people to determine consequences as well as to determine the validity of what is being said to them...........and we need kids who will look ahead to the repercussions of their actions. It allows them to see things objectively, too. It drives me nuts when people can't think beyond how something effects them personally. That's how we get so many control freaks running around.

I'd also like to see them put back government classes. It makes my teeth grind when people call the US a "democracy". It's time for people to learn at least fundamentally how their government works (or is supposed to at any rate).

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Claude Whitacre 10 years ago

Rational thinking. How to filter out nonsense from evidence.
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- Joe Mobley 10 years ago
  
  Hey, I have evidence for my nonsense.
  
  Joe Mobley
  
  Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre
  
  Rational thinking. How to filter out nonsense from evidence.
  
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  Claude Whitacre 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Joe Mobley
  
  Hey, I have evidence for my nonsense.
  
  Joe Mobley
  
  Joe; Don't we all?
  
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  Joe Mobley 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Joe Mobley
  
  Hey, I have evidence for my nonsense.
  
  Joe Mobley
  
  Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre
  
  Joe; Don't we all?
  
  Yes... well... except for those people that I don't agree with. :rolleyes:
  
  Joe Mobley
  
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- whateverpedia 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre
  
  Rational thinking.
  
  Can't see how that would be much use to anyone who's going to end up making posts in the OT Forum.
  
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travlinguy

10 years ago

Simple arithmetic and spelling. A lot of kids apparently didn't get it the first time around.

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socialentry

10 years ago

Pffft.

What is "advanced math" to them?

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Midnight Oil 10 years ago

Originally Posted by socialentry

Pffft.

What is "advanced math" to them?

Making change.
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MikeTucker

10 years ago

Originally Posted by socialentry

Pffft.

What is "advanced math" to them?

How is this for math when it comes to "them":

Texas buys so many text books that 22 other states
get the exact same ones, because of the bulk discount.

Now, my Texican math ain't so good, but I'd reckon
that makes "them" damn-near half the U.S. of A.?

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socialentry

10 years ago

Originally Posted by MikeTucker

How is this for math when it comes to "them":

Texas buys so many text books that 22 other states
get the exact same ones, because of the bulk discount.

Now, my Texican math ain't so good, but I'd reckon
that makes "them" damn-near half the U.S. of A.?

It's quite possible. As a Canadian, I'm not privy to the politics surrounding American education.

It's just that some of the ideas in this thread are appallingly bad. I'm surprised no one said basket weaving.

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thunderbird 10 years ago

Originally Posted by socialentry

<snip> I'm surprised no one said basket weaving.

Basket weaving sounds like an excellent project for my son and I to take on!

DIY How to Make a Basket from Recycled Newspaper...

PS I still think tiger parenting sucks and improvisational music playing is the way to go.
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Claude Whitacre

10 years ago

Originally Posted by socialentry

It's quite possible. As a Canadian, I'm not privy to the politics surrounding American education.

It's just that some of the ideas in this thread are appallingly bad. I'm surprised no one said basket weaving.

Basket Weaving.

You are Canadian. Could I ask you a question? Does that mean you sleep in a coffin? And if you do sleep in a coffin, does that make you gay? And if you are gay, does that mean you want to marry a balloon..or a tree?

And why does being Canadian make you want to marry a tree?

These are important questions.

And this is why we should learn how to think rationally.

And I'm going to...starting now....OK, now.......in a minute..OK, I'm ready...starting...Nnnn....oowww... Now!

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socialentry

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre

Basket Weaving.

You are Canadian. Could I ask you a question? Does that mean you sleep in a coffin? And if you do sleep in a coffin, does that make you gay? And if you are gay, does that mean you want to marry a balloon..or a tree?

And why does being Canadian make you want to marry a tree?

These are important questions.

And this is why we should learn how to think rationally.

And I'm going to...starting now....OK, now.......in a minute..OK, I'm ready...starting...Nnnn....oowww... Now!

Twilight is very popular in Canada so coffins are all the rage with the girls now and cheaper then sports cars.

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The Content Professional

10 years ago

I think logic and personal finances are two very good ideas.

They actually taught logic when I was in school but it was in a special advanced program that only certain students were eligible for. Went by the name of SAIL, I'm sure they name probably varies from school to school.

One huge class that used to be MANDATORY but is now being pushed OUT of schools is physical education.

Make it deeper, too. Instead of just hitting around a volleyball, teach kids different exercise routines so they can remain fit without a basketball hoop (don't get me wrong, I love basketball). Also, implement nutrition more heavily into the fold.

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socialentry

10 years ago

Ah well, there is one that thinks basket weaving as a replacement for calculus in high school is a good idea.

Thunderbird to the rescue!

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thunderbird 10 years ago

Originally Posted by socialentry

Ah well, there is one that thinks basket weaving as a replacement for calculus in high school is a good idea.

Thunderbird to the rescue!

Ah, you're at it again, attributing non-existent statements to other people again. BTW, tiger parenting overwhelmingly produces miserable people. My son learns math in fun ways, not by some hardcore sadistic and ineffective torture methods used in tiger parenting.

Here's something that looks fun! Combining basket-weaving and math.

Dramatic Results - Math in a Basket - YouTube
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socialentry

10 years ago

Sounds a lot like introductory business classes in university.

kekeke

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thunderbird

10 years ago

(So far, Dennis has made no comment about his purported comment)

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Dennis Gaskill

10 years ago

Originally Posted by thunderbird

(So far, Dennis has made no comment about his purported comment)

That's because I hadn't seen it until just now. Funny how I say things so smart I don't even understand them. No wonder I forget I've said them. Like I told you before though, two can play at that game.

Originally Posted by thunderbird

Not many realize it, but I am an occasional trouble maker with a propensity to pick on the nicest person, smartest, most handsome person around, which is usually my hero, Dennis.

You can say that again!

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