Exactly why I’m following another curriculum for a subject I don’t know well/haven’t trained in! Starting small and ramping up difficulty is also something I’m hoping that gets me out of the literature version of tutorial hell
I've only just started so time will tell if i make it through, but i've been enjoying the philosophy club so much! It's something that felt completely out of reach for me, as an adult without classroom setting, but now it's going ok :))
Which curriculums/topics are you planning on following?
I've always liked the idea of deeply reading and engaging with literature but it felt either very overwhelming or highbrow for me. So it's nice to read it slowly and see others' interpretations and little tidbits of information they add. Makes it more accessible and fun for me! :)
i love Footnotes and Tangents! I hesitated to join the slow read too, but ultimately i don't have enough time for it + the 2 others i committed to. I'll def try it next year though. You're right, Simon makes it really easy to get into those books.
Oooo I love your perspectives on the personal curriculum. I’ve seen bits and pieces of it online, and some of my friends have designed curriculums. I haven’t really dived further because I already spend all day designing curriculum for my students so the concept of doing more of it in my own time is unappealing. 😅 but following someone else’s seems exciting!
I once had to create 10 tutorial classes for an assistant teacher position and it was hell! I didn't even have to do the actual curriculum, just the difficulty ramp up in exercises 😭 There's so much work involved in making those, it's incredible!
As you say, a curriculum is just the wrong format for self-directed learning because you can't know how everything fits together in advance. It has to be more like curiosity-driven research.
I'd advise anyone that wants to make their own curriculum to instead:
- Pick their topic of interest
- Research some thinkers and titles, make a short list
- Pick the entry point that seems most interesting (not the most "important")
- Note the interesting texts and thinkers that come up in reading that first text
- Use that to expand the list
- Pick the next title based on the questions and topics that most interest you *after* finishing the first text
- Repeat indefinitely
Part of the fun of self-directed learning is that you get to be sensitive to your own particular interests and not merely rely on what's important as someone else defines it. It puts everything into conversation.
Exactly why I’m following another curriculum for a subject I don’t know well/haven’t trained in! Starting small and ramping up difficulty is also something I’m hoping that gets me out of the literature version of tutorial hell
I've only just started so time will tell if i make it through, but i've been enjoying the philosophy club so much! It's something that felt completely out of reach for me, as an adult without classroom setting, but now it's going ok :))
Which curriculums/topics are you planning on following?
I'm following a year-long slow read of War & Peace hosted on Footnotes & Tangents! https://footnotesandtangents.substack.com/
I've always liked the idea of deeply reading and engaging with literature but it felt either very overwhelming or highbrow for me. So it's nice to read it slowly and see others' interpretations and little tidbits of information they add. Makes it more accessible and fun for me! :)
i love Footnotes and Tangents! I hesitated to join the slow read too, but ultimately i don't have enough time for it + the 2 others i committed to. I'll def try it next year though. You're right, Simon makes it really easy to get into those books.
Oooo I love your perspectives on the personal curriculum. I’ve seen bits and pieces of it online, and some of my friends have designed curriculums. I haven’t really dived further because I already spend all day designing curriculum for my students so the concept of doing more of it in my own time is unappealing. 😅 but following someone else’s seems exciting!
I once had to create 10 tutorial classes for an assistant teacher position and it was hell! I didn't even have to do the actual curriculum, just the difficulty ramp up in exercises 😭 There's so much work involved in making those, it's incredible!
Hard to kick off 20+ years of structured programming by institutions
As you say, a curriculum is just the wrong format for self-directed learning because you can't know how everything fits together in advance. It has to be more like curiosity-driven research.
I'd advise anyone that wants to make their own curriculum to instead:
- Pick their topic of interest
- Research some thinkers and titles, make a short list
- Pick the entry point that seems most interesting (not the most "important")
- Note the interesting texts and thinkers that come up in reading that first text
- Use that to expand the list
- Pick the next title based on the questions and topics that most interest you *after* finishing the first text
- Repeat indefinitely
Part of the fun of self-directed learning is that you get to be sensitive to your own particular interests and not merely rely on what's important as someone else defines it. It puts everything into conversation.