One of the things that I had to determine early on was what subjects to teach my kiddoes.
Obviously, as I started the whole homeschooling thing “spur-of-the-moment” like, and didn’t have the foggiest idea of what to do or how others did it, and because I took the kid out of school to start, I decided to follow the school’s course of study.
Of course, I ran into a problem directly. I mean, what was this course called “Social Studies”? I was bambuzzled, which is truly saying something because I recalled having”social studies” throughout my school years. That’s a sad state of affairs, truly! And just the beginning of the number of realizations to come of how ‘un-educated” I really was.
I think I went to the World Book course of study and wrote it all out. . .
And then I went completely mad and did such a thing for each and every subject.
From there (just a completely ADD moment, did you notice this is the first non-vowel started paragraph?) I determined there are really only 3 “subjects” ever taught.
Well, there is, if you choose to give them broad headings like “social studies”. The other two “super” headings would be “arts” and “sciences”.
So why is it that there is only one super heading in the typical school system?
Am I being completely random today??? I feel like a pebble being skipped across a creek. . . Please bear with me. My lists won’t be all inclusive as I’m apparently too scatterbrained today to have a logical thought.
Social Studies: would be the study of history, geography (not just mapwork), current events, government / civics, culture and religion. (Yes, believe it or not, religion should certainly go here, as you can’t truly understand people unless you know from whence they come) You could even make an argument for “soft” sciences” like psychology, sociology, etc. (or you could put them under the science heading).
Sciences: This would include all your math and science work. As stated before you could argue to place the “soft sciences” here. Logic would be here (if I had any).
The Arts: This is where I can see myself getting arguments. Everyone is thinking of painters and possibly sculptors right now. A number may wisely throw in music. Fewer would think of dance / drama. A rare number would come up with handicrafts (needle, wood, metal, etc.) or food prep. How many of you considered “language”? Ahh, yes, languages (foreign and domestic) are an art form as well. (If I was thinking logically today, I’d be up to argue the point, but I’ll let you consider it. . .If you disagree you could post a comment.)
And thus, you have the entire course of study under 3 “simple” headings.
I find that incredible, truly.
I was reading an article recently. (I really need to save these articles, so that I can properly cite them, and back myself up!) It was discussing the “failure of social studies”. One thing it mentioned was that the failure came in the fact that it was listed as “social studies” and left it completely open to interpretation as to what needed to be taught. The result of this was that very little indeed was being taught. Whereas topics in the art and the sciences were clearly defined, so educators had a clearer understanding of what should be covered. So, I suppose, to answer my question, it’s a failure to go with “super headings”. . .
Or maybe the failure comes from those who don’t care to discover what the “super headings” actually entail.
It’s a point to ponder, really.
The whole “rating” of subjects brought this to mind. I felt the need to justify, to myself, why I would put art and music on my “important list”. I think it goes back to my “super headings”. The arts are creative, and without creative thought we wouldn’t have the sciences, nor would we have the number of incredible things we study in history. I don’t want my children to be mindless worker bees, following formulas and the like. I want them to draw the box, and dance around it, and create new ideas of thought for others to consider and possibly argue or hopefully enjoy.
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