by blackbootz

A poet's pie in the sky proposal got me thinking, what is it that I think every child should know by 10? Designing curriculum is a way for a country to pass down many cultural things to its children, like favored versions of national origin ("no taxation without representation" is taught in every social studies class in the United States).

Here's the original proposal:

My ideal elementary-school curriculum would instead require all children to learn: (1) the times tables up to, say, 25; (2) a foreign language, preferably obscure; (3) the geography of a foreign land, like New Jersey; (4) how to use basic hand tools and cook a cassoulet; (5) how to raise a bird or lizard (if the child is vegetarian, then a potato); (6) poems by heart, say one per week; (7) how to find the way home from a town at least 10 miles away; (8) singing; (9) somersaults. With all that out of the way by age 12, there’s no telling what children might do.

Any revisions?