England, Southgate, Biden, Putin, Ukraine, Prisons, NATO, pickling, roof insulation, win a dream holiday home in Norfolk, online belly-dance fitness classes: I was scrolling the morning headlines when I found this:

Planet-Saving Wisdom: 21 Crucial Teachings for Children

Story by Hazel Savage

This was catnip to me. Couldn’t resist. Click, click click.

You see, I collect ideas to populate new curricula.

Have done for years.

It’s just a little low-key thing; I’ve got notebooks full of the stuff,

and here it was, in 28 clicks (including adverts): a new national curriculum for flourishing and survival.

Oh my.

Intent, Implementation, Impact

We were told, weren’t we, that we were free to build a curriculum to meet the needs of the community we served; that alternative models would be looked upon favourably as long as the intent was clear, the implementation effective and the impact demonstrable. All very reasonable.

We were told they sought a cohort of buccaneers.

Academies, the flagship model for mainstream educational delivery, were exempted from teaching the national curriculum as long as they delivered something of equal breadth and ambition. All very progressive.

Trouble is, such is their clammy grip on divergent thinking, that in all practical senses we are free to do whatever we like only as long as it looks like what it’s always looked like. Deviate, by all means, just don’t deviate.

Bottom line, they won’t let go.

Not easily, and their grip is strong,

but sweat is slippery and all it’ll take in the end is a loosening then a tug.

Transdisciplinary

Savage’s list is simply brilliant.

Perfect for children growing up in the new Carolean era.

It has everything they need to flourish and survive.

(and heaven know, they’ll need oodles)

but this must not be a curriculum of fear and frustration and impotence. It must emancipate learners and learning through love and deep understanding; awe, wonder and agency.

Purposeful work that really matters to them and the world around them: a true curriculum for flourishing and survival.

Personally I’d love to write the unit on The Power of Plants and I’d start by revisiting Plants, People, And Culture - The Science of Ethnobotany (Balick and Cox, 1996). I’ve never read a book quite like it, and it certainly evolved my understanding of the world around me and my place in it, revealing as it does, our extraordinarily complex and rich relationship with and our fundamental dependence on the wondrous world of plants. This project would knock their socks off!

I’d get Jo to lead on The Art of Upcycling and Reduce, Reuse, Recycle; Mark on Composting, Gratitude for Nature and Conservation Conversation. Pauly on the two energy units. So many options; so much joy to prepare, and prepare for!

Rich, deep, interconnected,

establishing ourselves respectfully within things rather than at the centre of them.

Benevolent custodians, sorted.

Hetrodox

Meanwhile, back in its lair, their beast is insatiable: it needs feeding all the time. And they really think they know how to do this safely, efficiently, effectively. They have done the research. They have all the tricks and all the top tips, and they will happily share them with us. But that’s not the point. Getting really, really good at doing the wrong thing is wasteful. What they need to do is draw themselves up to full height, tackle the beast to the ground and slay it - surely the fate that must await all beasts - but they don’t seem to have any tricks for that. Or any stomach.

So will build from here,

and do what’s left

cut a new main stream,

out to the ocean and beyond.