The Big Bad Curriculum | Day 110 of my 2023 Journal

Several times since we arrived at the castle, I did not finish my challenge on the day and felt like falling behind.

This got me thinking about the idea of children who fall “behind” and the structure in which they are constantly condemned as good enough. Or not.

Let’s think about it.

Children are fed into the schooling machine, and inside that machine is an agenda, a vast and complex and not very transparent secret agenda called The Curriculum. Everyone working for the machine has to serve The Curriculum.

It is an enormous thing, hundreds, maybe thousands, of details as to what and how, and when the child learns this and that. The School Factory is doing everything it can to keep up. The child will always be measured against this imaginary ideal, and most will be “behind” in some way for most of his or her childhood. And even if they are not, there is always the option they could be.


I have a hard time wording the destructive power of this system. It is an enormous pressure on the children in the crucial years of establishing existence.

I remember how shocked I was when someone presented me with the idea that a 2-year-old had to show up every day at the nursery to not “fall behind.”

What exactly can you be “behind” with when you are only 2?!

See, there is, in reality, no difference when we look at older children.

When you are fourteen, you are not “behind” because you speak only one language or know nothing of Chinese history, or don’t care about pop music.

The idea everyone has to be measured on the same scale is basically fascism.



Who gets to decide the scale?

Do we really trust someone to set boundaries on what is the right way to be human?

And do we want our children to feel worthless if they do not meet the standards?

Do we want a single standard, one size fits all?

The radical idea of unschooling and of a life without the structural ideas of school is in many ways an act of rebellion, a fight for basic rights of existence, a flag held high for kindness. A protest against hidden oppression, a shout-out for everyone’s personal freedom. 

Love and light

Cecilie Conrad

# 110 of my 2023 writing challenge - Read them all here