One of our favorite TV shows is/was Community. If you haven’t watched it, please do. Right away. It’s hysterical.
As I was playing around with curriculum unit ideas for Crow’s Nest Academy, I couldn’t help thinking of one of my favorite episodes -“Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design.” It features a colossal blanket fort complete with a Turkish District, a Latvian Independence Parade, and a Civil Rights Museum as well as a hare-brained conspiracy plot involving a made-up night school.
Here’s a clip.
One of the classic moments is when two of the characters find a list of the courses offered at the night school, including:
- History of Something
- Introduction to Basics
- Principles of Intermediate
- Theoretical Phys Ed
Naturally, I decided that Crow’s Nest Academy needed to have equally compelling course unit names to make sure Fain stays engaged.
So far, I’ve got a general outline for the first four units and accompanying texts, which will take us through the end of November. The names that I’ve given the units are as follows:
- Advanced Hubris for Beginners
- Rebellion 101
- Swearing for Young Sailors
- The Fundamentals of Reading Water
Believe it or not, we’ll have all of the Common Core standards covered by the end of unit five. I’ll go into more detail in future posts, but we’ll be using the following texts as foundations for the units:
- We Are All Confident Idiots, David Dunning
- Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, Michael Ruhlman
- To Swear like a Sailor: Maritime Culture in America, 1750-1859, Paul Gilje
- How to Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea, Tristan Gooley
I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am. I’ve missed teaching, and I actually get to develop curriculum the way that I believe will be most effective rather than as dictated by a suit. All of the units will be relevant to our adventures at sea and at port, and they’ll be holistic, covering multiple disciplines simultaneously.
That last bit is blowing Fain’s mind a little. He can’t imagine a school without specific classes. But he’s not arguing.
I’d live to nominate. The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century, for European History. Emphasizes what a shithole a period in time we tend to romanticize actually was. And it’s a fun read.
It looks like a fun read! We’ll put this on the books for when we head east to England. Thanks for the recommendation!