Creating a personal curriculum

In a rare moment, I decided to go with the more SEO friendly title. I could also have called this post Becoming an Autodidactic. My third choice was Grown-ups Homeschooling Themselves and Not Realizing It. So many options. 

But I should back up. This morning I was searching for a podcast to listen to while I cleaned the barn to take my mind off of the continued extremely cold weather. The podcast I had been listening to had volume issues, so turned out not to be a good fit for the barn. On a whim I searched, "psychology of crafting" to see if I could find something that would hold my interest in eleven degree weather. The first option was for The Modern Mrs. Darcy's podcast, What Should I Read Next? I do wonder at algorithms sometimes because at first glance this had nothing to do with my search, and then I noticed the first word of the episode title. It was crafting. A very tenuous connection to my way of thinking. The whole title was Crafting Your Personal Curriculum. It wasn't exactly what I had searched for, but I like books, curriculum is related to education which I also find interesting, so I decided to try it. 

While listening to it I truly couldn't decide whether to rejoice, be vaguely irritated, or vaguely amused. It seems that there is a Tiktok trend of adults creating their own course of study. Since I have never seen a Tiktok in my life, I was unaware of this trend. Now, I'm all for people learning things. I'm even more excited by people figuring out how to learn what they are interested in. The whole thing is great. The concept is not what caused less joyful emotions. 

My vague irritation came from the idea that this is somehow new, when really, the idea of an autodidactic (self-learner) has been around for quite some time. I'm sure it is also tied to my general annoyance over the sway public schools hold over the population. That would be that they are the conduits of learning and one needs their expertise in order to learn. But then I swing back to rejoicing that there are people discovering this concept isn't true. 

Finally we come to my amusement. The podcast was the host and a guest, discussing the guest's interests and what resources (books and other things) would be useful for learning about those interests. I'm order to not be overwhelmed by how many different things there are to learn, they decided this process would be helpful:

1. Pick a topic you are interested in 

2. Set a time frame 

3. Find some books to get you started on your learning

4. Look for other resources (Great Courses lectures were mentioned a few times)

5. Find some way to interact with what you've learned, such as discussing with another person, keeping a journal of what you've learned, making something (such as cooking a fish if you've been learning about cooking), share what you've learned with others

I might have laughed out loud at this point because the process they were discussing was the exact same process I have used with my children for decades. In homeschooling parlance this is called unit studies. I have always made my own pretty much based on what we were interested in. 

If I had been in on the conversation there were a few things I would add, because I have always been an autodidactic even before I knew the term. 

1. Use the bibliographies at the end of a book. Often they will point you in the direction of others topics or books you would be interested in.

2. Give yourself permission to drop a topic if your curiosity has been satisfied. You might find that at some point you'll come back to it, but on a deeper level. Or you might not, and that's okay, too.

3. You don't have to finish every book you thought you wanted to read on a topic.

4. Wander the non-fiction section of your library and check out books at random because you like the way they look. It can be hard to know what you want to know if you don't know that thing exists. This random wandering and picking can open your horizons.

5. There's no final. You do not need to fully cover a topic. You don't even need to remember the details, especially if this is your first encounter with it. Becoming aware can be enough. But I guarantee that you will start to notice references to that topic as you go through your day, which will cement what you've learned and might cause you to eventually want to deepen your interest. 

6. Have fun! If you aren't enjoying learning about something, then set it aside. There are no requirements. Besides, if you aren't engaged by a topic, you're not going to remember anything about it anyway.