Short Term classes are better opportunities for teachers to teach their passions, like scuba diving. Courtesy of Elisabeth Copeland
When you think of Paideia’s educational style, you might think of the teachers’ independent curriculums. At Paideia, unlike most schools in the metro Atlanta area, teachers have a certain amount of freedom to teach their own curriculum.
I believe that there are pros and cons to an open curriculum. The pros of open curriculum are that students are able to indulge more deeply into a specific subject. In seminars and themes, teachers can teach a class with their own material and at their own pace.
Open curriculum teaching style makes classes more interesting for students and allows them to focus on more specific subjects that vary from other schools.
There are cons of open curriculum as well, such as for underclassmen level classes, so an open curriculum is not a fair system.
In underclassmen classes, teachers could be teaching the same subject, yet there are various paces. For example, one class could be ahead and have a test or quiz every week, and another class teaching the same subject and at the same level only has a reading or two per week.
Short Term offers students the chance to take classes that explore new subjects that are not offered in the long term. Instead of ordinary algebra or English, Short Term classes range in all subjects, such as Intro to Scuba Diving, The Simpsons, or Viva Las Vegas.
These classes are a perfect opportunity for teachers and students to use an open curriculum style of teaching.
I believe it is better to explore the open curriculum style teaching during Short Term instead of during Long Term.
Kalid Sadik ’27 says, “I think an open curriculum makes Paideia a unique place. If teachers are free to teach whatever they want, then they have the ability to educate about what they are passionate about, which makes the classes more engaging.”
In my opinion, an open curriculum is not a fair teaching system for an underclassmen class that is a required class for all students since the test and homework load varies depending on your teacher.