intro to programming! ive been told I’m pretty good at breaking things down in a way a beginner would understand and programming is something that can be so intimidating to outsiders, I’d want to help lower the bar to entry and enable people to become passionate in programming when they otherwise wouldn’t
English.
For context I’m from Costa Rica and English in high school is absolutely nothing to what you learn in the USA/UK. So yeah, I am 17, in 11th grade and I was still learning about past tense, lmao.
Anarchist’s Cookbook
Why? So much of that is inaccurate or unsafe that you would only be hurting people.
Now teaching kids how to safely work an angle grinder ora cutting torch so they can get into places when they forgot their keys? That’s useful stuff.
Finance, credit, investing, retirement, savings. How money works. I’ve worked with way too many younger folks that don’t know anything about finance.
I had that opportunity once. But
“Nah, I want to get a feel for the market first, ya know? That’s why I’m investing short-term for now – I’ll do long-term later.”
VT ain’t as hip as Nvidia options, eh?
I grew up around finance people. I recall one guy at church, who used to run the Bank of NY, telling a bunch if us after the 1987 crash that he didn’t get why so many people under 65 were freaking out as their investments weren’t getting cashed in any time soon. It gave me perspective on how that race is run.
Real politics. None of this Mr. Bill stuff. How to find and get involved with your state party, how to get a protest permit, how to get signatures for a campaign, how to read statistics and polling, and finally factual primers on issues.
Traditional subject?
Physics, but applicable physics. Not just the boring memorization of formulae to do math with. Stress on beams like you might calculate for a building structure. Heat generated on a electrical transmission wire causing it to sag. How thrust and mass interact to put a satellite in orbit. Stuff that could be applied in a job or just be really interesting to figure out.
How to say “No”, there are many people who are afraid to.
Wine, Ihave been studying it for years
Wood science, I suppose.
I have taught computer science, but I’d also be happy to teach art, finance, or ethics.
Oral communications. I have no formal education or interest in performance, but learned how to get over strong stage fright when I was young. Confidence, when it’s not natural, is mostly “fake it till ya make it.” Also nihilism and cynicism that the kids will naturally grow into as adults.
Gym, I’d just let 'em play dodgeball each class
Phonics. The current curriculum is based around sight-reading, meaning students are told not to sound out words they don’t recognize. The effect of these have cascaded down the rest of these students’ lives, and now we are seeing a wave of Uni students who are nearly illiterate. I’m getting a degree in elementary education and I’m proud to say that I’m going to be doing my part to fix the problem.
English, because word history is fun, communication is important, and teaching kids that language is constantly evolving would be fun.
Computer programming and related tech skills. Why? Because I’ve been doing as a job and for fun for over 35 years and have been teaching it for 5 so I guess it works out.
