Below is a working draft of the syllabus I’m writing for my high school classes. It’s not easy for the same reason that teaching isn’t easy — it’s a delicate balance between being serious and light-hearted, and between putting the onus on the student and on the teacher. Comments and fresh ideas are greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: I’ve decided to post a pdf version that can be downloaded here.

Today at dinner with some friends, we got to talking about the Filipino prisoners dancing videos, followed by rousing round of the the “would you rather go to prison or X” game. It was during this time that it dawned upon me:

If you’re soft, you’ll be eaten alive; if you’re hard, you’ll be respected. But what an awful analogy! Who wants to compare school to prison? [1] What we need is an analogy that somehow incorporates cloyingly cute and wonderful things, like puppies and sneezing pandas.

[1] I guess besides all teenagers, that is. (And Michel Foucault.)