INTEGRATED CURRICULUM

All knowledge is interconnected. What we know is web-like: one idea leads to another, relates back to others. However convenient it may be, we can't simply tidy up our knowledge into separate levels and discrete subject fields, and safely drop those which do not turn us on.

How do you know what you can do, what interests you, what you can become, if you are unaware of whole continents of thought? At The Dragon Academy we believe students should explore the fabric of knowledge and understand the history of ideas.

We have built upon the Ontario Ministry of Education mandated curriculum. Everything required by the usual standard, and much more, is there, but it is integrated.

First, there is integration across all areas of the curriculum. Your mind grows, developmental psychologists tell us, and each stage brings new conflicts and questions, which must be solved in order to move on. The Dragon curriculum is an organic, developmentally progressive structure: we match the subjects studied, the themes explored, to these stages as they emerge.

Second, there is integration across all years of the curriculum. Think of our curriculum as a constellation of concepts. Each is a distinct entity, belonging to a distinct subject, but they are drawn together by their historical connections. So, concepts in maths, sciences, languages, history, the arts, physical and health education are drawn together, integrated into the study of other subjects using the historical period in which they were born. Each year of our programme centres on a different historical era and its paradigm, its world model or view.

What is the good of graduating with your head crammed with fragmented facts? As time passes, it will only get harder and harder to bring those facts back to mind. At the Dragon Academy, we would rather our students constructed a model of the world in their heads, a framework into which new knowledge can be incorporated, a set of skills and tools with which new knowledge can be acquired. And kept.