The Dangerous Child Curriculum, Part IX

For today's posting, we will return to the John David Garcia curriculum, last visited in part VII of this series. As mentioned in earlier postings, Al Fin corresponded with and visited with Garcia in his later years.

Garcia's curriculum is meant as an example or a prototype for the design of a broader, more enlightened, and distinctly more dangerous curriculum for the new generation of dangerous children.

We resume our look at Garcia's program at around age 12 of training. As mentioned before, this curriculum is meant to be adapted to each child as appropriate. It is not expected that all children will progress at the same speed.

Much of the training in Garcia's approach takes place outside of classrooms and formal settings. It is expected that multiple instructors would be involved -- most or all of whom would not be government certified as K-12 instructors. Government certification is seen as a distinct impediment and handicap, in the setting of dangerous child training.

		Physical		Biological
Avg. Level	Avg. Age	Physical Theory	Physical Practice	Biological Theory	Biological Practice
10.00	12.00	Gauss' mathematics and physics continued; general thermodynamics, the work of Boltzman Clausius and Gibbs, Maxwell's demon, the inventions of Edison and Tesla; the work of Mendeleev and the beginning of organic chemistry; probability theory as understood by Gauss and Galton	Construction of AC generators and regulators, simple radios, light bulbs, and recording devices; begin design and construction of simple internal combustion engine; experiments in organic chemistry and synthesis of organic compounds	The life and work of Charles Darwin and Wallace, the evolution of evolutionary ideas, the theory of natural selection, and the three laws of thermodynamics; the work of Pasteur continued	Each student gathers evidence for and against Darwinian evolution, taking into account basic genetic knowledge and probability
10.25	12.25	Non-Euclidean geometry and statistical mechanics; introduction to systematic probability theory and statistics; continue work in thermodynamics and organic chemistry; the work of W.R. Hamilton and Henri Poincare is studied	Continue work of previous quarter; construct interferometers and repeat the Michelson/Morley experiments; repeat experiments of Planck to derive Planck's constant; develop and derive the special theory of relativity; begin construction of automobile; continue internal combustion engine project	Neo-Darwinian theories of evolution and evolutionary genetics up to R.A. Fisher's The Genetical Theory of Evolution; explain disease and parasites in evolution	Do genetic experiments with fruit flies and molds, giving evidence for and against neo-Darwinism, theories of evolution, bacteriology; systematic study and laboratory work
10.50	12.50	The physics of the 20th century, including the General Theory of Relativity up to the discovery of quantum mechanics, is presented as a year course in modern physics (with an advanced calculus prerequisite) as it might have been given at Harvard, Cambridge, or Gottingen in 1925; physical and organic chemistry, also a year survey course; finish study of Henri Poincare	Continue work on automobile; repeat experiments leading up to Bohr atom; handmade basic tubes for radio and oscilloscope; construct a more advanced radio and oscilloscope using tubes; make photocells, synthesize organic compounds	Introduction to cell biochemistry and advanced genetics; begin chromatography and electrophoresis for separating common biochemical constituents of mammals	The chemical structure of the constituents of life; isolating nucleic acids and proteins, determining their properties through chemical and spectrographic analysis; create genetic mosaics
10.75	12.75	Continuation of previous quarter; relate physical chemistry and organic chemistry to biochemistry; theory of x-ray machines and electron microscopes	Continuation of previous quarter; finish automobile; study of x-ray machines and electron microscopes; organic chemistry laboratory; motion pictures	Continuation of previous quarter; introduction to x-ray crystallography and electron microscopy for the study of large molecules and viruses	Continuation of previous quarter; use of x-ray crystallography to determine chemical structure; electron microscopy of viruses and large molecules

		Psychosocial		Integration
Avg. Level	Avg. Age	Psychosocial Theory	Pyschosocial Practice	Integrative Theory	Integrative Practice
10.00	12.00	The theories of Marx and Engels in detail, Das Kapital and the Dialectics of Nature; the ideas of August LeComte and social science in general; the psychology of William James	Critical essay on Marxism and dialectic materialism; what is wrong and what is right about theory, what is the scientific evidence for and against the theory; why is social science so full of nonsense?	Ethical analysis of Marxist philosophy and ethics; how and why Marxism violates the evolutionary ethic; read The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky	The music of Arnold Schoenberg, the plays of Frank Wedekind, the early paintings of Picasso and the Cubists; the opera Lulu by Alban Berg is performed
10.25	12.25	The philosophy of Nietzsche and Spencer; evolutionary ethics as propounded by Spencer; ethical Darwinism, an introduction to the life and ideas of Sigmund Freud, the rise of racist fascism in Europe	Essay comparing the neo-Darwinian ethics with Marxism; the incipient Lamarckianism in Marxism compared to its ethics; essay on European racism and fascism growing out of social Darwinism	Ethical analysis of neo-Darwinian philosophy and of social Darwinism; how and why social Darwinism and fascism violate the evolutionary ethic; Freud as a Newtonian psychologist looking for mechanistic explanations which may not exist; ethical implications of the unconscious	The music of Richard Strauss, Ein Heldenleben, Also Sprach Zarathustra, and the opera Elektra; Man and Superman by G.B. Shaw is also performed
10.50	12.50	World history from 1910 to 1925; the basic writings of Lenin and a study of his life; World War I and the Russian Revolution, the world fear of communism, Leon Trotsky as an idealized communist; Freud's later works	Essay on the origins and consequences of World War I; essay on the origins and consequences of communism in Russia; essay on how the brilliant, ethical Trotsky went wrong and helped create a Frankenstein	An ethical analysis of how the Soviet Union betrayed its own revolution and turned into a monster; how the centralization of power makes corruption inevitable; read Darkness at Noon by Koestler and Animal Farm by Orwell	The music of Prokofiev and Shostakovich; the films of Sergei Eisenstein, including Ivan the Terrible; perform the Shostakovich opera Lady Macbeth of Murmansk and Mussorgsky's Boris Gudenov
10.75	12.75	World history 1925 to 1939; the basic writings of Mussolini, Hitler, fascism, Stalin, and Soviet communism; a study of Hitler and Stalin as complementary personalities who changed history; early works of Pavlov and Jung	Essay comparing the conflicting ideologies and economic factors leading to World War II; what could have been done to prevent World War II; why the United States was so immune to both communism and fascism	An ethical anlysis of how capitalistic greed and the political cowardice and vindictiveness of the European democracies made World War II inevitable; Read Winds of War by Wouk	The music of Stravinsky, the early art of Dali, the films of Chaplin, Bu_nuel, Lang, and Pabst, plus Academy Award winners; perform Hindemith's opera Mathis der Mahler and Brecht's Mahagonny

Garcia's publications that are available online