The Dangerous Child: Curricula Part I

For the world of the future to be a world of infinite possibilities, there is a need to grow a succession of new crops of dangerous children. It is not likely that most conventional western people will understand the connection between the one and the other, or the need.

Western nations have allowed themselves to become trapped in a web of social and governmental strangulation. Debt and demographic decline are ganging up with psychological neoteny, academic lobotomy, media zombification, and a general lack of substance and grit. Government dependency is growing while opportunities and possibilities for independent action and enterprise are shrinking.

These problems will not solve themselves at this stage, for society as a whole. But there will be pockets of opportunity and competence that can flourish if there are enough competent and dangerous children who can work together to hold off the general disorder and decay on a local and regional basis.

John David Garcia was a philosopher, inventor, scientist, and social/educational theorist. Over the next few postings here, I will excerpt portions of Garcia's daring curriculum for a new kind of school and training program. This is a program that if put into play might well help to create the beginning of a new crop of dangerous children. Dangerous children can not only see what is wrong with their worlds -- they can also do something about it.

		Physical		Biological
Avg. Level	Avg. Age	Physical Theory	Physical Practice	Biological Theory	Biological Practice
1.00	3.00	Cause and effect	The lever	The human body	Body care
1.25	3.25	Clubs and poles	Modifying trees and branches	Animal bodies; small domestic animals	How to care for a pet
1.50	3.50	Different stones and their properties	Using stones	Edible plants and their properties	Gathering edible plants and mushrooms
1.75	3.75	Shaping stone	Building simple stone tools	Edible animals and fish	Hunting and fishing
2.00	4.00	Shaping wood with stone	Using stone tools to modifu poles and clubs	Food preparation and preservation	Cleaning and preparing small game and fish using bone, wood, and stone
2.25	4.25	Handling fire	Use of stone and wood to control fire, use of fire to harden spear points	Advanced food preparation	Cooking vegetables, fish, and meat on open fires
2.50	4.50	Advanced fire handling and control combining wood and stone tools, theory and design	Hafted axes and choppers are made; stone fire carriers, simple weaving and knotting of vines and leather	Elementary tanning and use of bone, vines, and vegetable fiber	Skinning animals and fish, preserving leather, advanced cooking. preparing vines and vegetable fiber
2.75	4.75	The bow and fire-making	Making bows and starting fires	Advanced food preparation; advanced tanning and bone work	Advanced cooking; clothes from animal hides; use of sinew and thongs; hunting with dogs
3.00	5.00	The use of clay and the bow and arrow; design of simple rafts	Making and baking clay pots on an open fire; making and using simple bows and arrows	Advanced food preparation including drying, smoking, & curing; health care	Cooking, drying, and smoking with clay pots; preparing and using medicinal herbs and poultices
3.25	5.25	Advanced paleolithic stone work of knives and axes; advanced bow making; advanced clay work without wheel; large rafts	Making stone tools to make other stone tools; making advanced bows and arrows; bellows and advanced pottery; building a large raft as a group project	Gathering seeds and planting edible plants; basic first aid	Gardening; preparing soil and cultivation; practice of first aid
3.50	5.50	Neolithic tools; construction of shelters; advanced counting; how to make a small dugout canoe and paddle	Construction of simple neolithic tools; the use of tally marks and stored pebbles; building a small dugout canoe and paddle	The biological need for shelter; building of lean-tos and simple teepees; clothes for extreme cold; simple agriculture	Construction of lean-tos and teepees; more advanced gardening; making bone needles and a parka
3.75	5.75	How to construct advanced neolithic tools and work stone and wood; more advanced counting and Arabic numbers to 10; how to build a large dugout canoe	Building advanced neolithic tools; working wood, simple carpentry, building semi-permanent structures; advanced tallying systems; building a large dugout canoe	How to make boots and moccasins from leather and plant fiber; how to know when to plant and when to harvest; taking care of goats and sheep	Construction of complete wardrobes of leather, plant, and animal fiber; more advanced gardening and animal husbandry

		Psychosocial		Integration
Avg. Level	Avg. Age	Psychosocial Theory	Pyschosocial Practice	Integrative Theory	Integrative Practice
1.00	3.00	How to communicate	Exchange of information	Ethics of personal obligation	Free-form drawing and painting, simple songs
1.25	3.25	Clubs and poles	Repeat same message from different source	Truth and lying, paleolithic stories	Free-form drawing and painting, paleolithic stories, drums
1.50	3.50	Games of information	Teams for sending and receiving messages	Advantages of cooperating vs competing; paleolithic stories	Songs, dancing, drawing, painting, telling stories
1.75	3.75	Making pictures for information communication	Drawing picture stories	Obligations of making oneself understood	Free-form art, stick-figure drawing for stories
2.00	4.00	Advanced picture stories	Making up stories with pictures	Ethics of separating fact from fiction; paleolithic stories	Wood carving and free-form painting; paleolithic stories created and drawn
2.25	4.25	Picture symbols which stand for complex events	Team communications games and "charades" using picture symbols	The difference between a symbol and the thing it symbolizes; paleolithic stories	Charcoal drawing on bark and stone; universal religious symbols; creating stories
2.50	4.50	Advanced picture symbols and counting	Making up stories by stringing together picture symbols which everyone can understand	Creation myths of paleolithic people	Making up creation myths and testing them
2.75	4.75	Rebus writing combined with picture writing	Making up stories with rebus and picture writing	Advanced creation myths of Native Americans and some religious beliefs, symbols	Native American art and what it expresses; free-form art for what students value
3.00	5.00	The notion of an alphabet and sound symbols	Stringing sound symbols together to make a word	The religions of native Americans and the evolutionary ethic	Percussion instruments, music, carving, dance, and art to express religious feelings
3.25	5.25	Reading advanced paleolithic stories with evolutionary ethical theme	Writing simple stories and accounts using alphabet, rebus writing, or pictures as desired	The importance of separating truth from fiction in our writing to avoid misleading others	Late paleolithic art and religion; student's expression of his own feelings about them
3.50	5.50	Reading stories and history of early neolithic life with evolutionary ethics theme	More writing of stories and accounts using alphabet, rebus writing, and pictures as desired	Simple analysis of neolithic culture and religions in light of the evolutionary ethic	Neolithic art and stone carving; clay figurines; self-expression of students
3.75	5.75	Reading more complex stories of neolithic life about religion and creativity in ancient Jericho and Mesopotamia	More writing of stories and accounts using alphabet and rebus writing, but no pictures, show difficulty of communicating numerical concepts over 10	Analysis of why neolithic culture advanced so slowly before the beginning of Sumer; the energy that went into religious ritual & the corrupt priestly bureaucracy	The flute and harp and the neolithic music possible for them; advanced neolithic art and religion; self-expression in all art media

The studies and all the activities of the day are integrated so that the child knows what it will be doing and why. Children who wish to follow a different path will be encouraged to do so. After consulting with the child, the home room teachers are obligated to accommodate the elections of each child and try to arrange the child's day so as to maximize the child's creativity, keeping the child in safety, and not imposing any activities on the child.

During this period the children are introduced to ethics and why we have an obligation to never do anything to harm anyone, including ourselves, why we should always try to do our best to increase our own creativity and the creativity of everyone with whom we interact. The concept of "creativity" is discussed with all the students, and they give their own opinions on the subject.

The child is introduced in very simple terms to what is creativity and what is harm. The concepts of harm and creativity are discussed by the teachers with all the children in each circle. The children are introduced to the concept of patience, and why we should always wait for our turn. They are taught how to show respect for each other, their teachers, their parents, their siblings, and everyone else.

These lessons are combined with free drawing, painting, and simple songs. The children are taught about the themes they will be studying during the day in physical, biological, psychosocial sciences, as well their integration through ethics, humanities and art. The themes of fire, water, air, earth, the human body, the school, the home, the family, our neighbors, positive and negative emotions, the sun, colors, ego, and ecology are all touched upon and integrated with the sciences, ethics, humanities, and art. This process will continue during all future days of study at SEE, except the discussions shall become more sophisticated and comprehensive. _JDG Lifetime Curriculum

It is important to teach ethics at the same time as one is teaching a child to be competent, conscientious, persistent, and dangerous.

The coming crop of dangerous children will be most dangerous to any society that attempts to restrict their freedoms and opportunities unjustly. Sic semper tyrannis.

More on the JDG curriculum in the near future. We will also look at other alternative curricula which may help make your child dangerous, in a good way, in a way that your lives may depend upon some day.