A Personal Curriculum for 2026

Something I touched on and wrote about in 2025 was course curriculums. In the Autumn, I had really big plans of diving deeper into some topics that I’ve found great interest in and structuring it out and sharing it…and then life took on a whole new level of busy. I struggled to balance it all and a bunch of things fell through the cracks- the curriculum plans included. So, here we are, trying this again. But this time I am going to try and plan the whole year out…we’ll see how this goes. 

I like to think that I am a lifelong learner- I seriously just love learning about new things, or diving deeper into things that are known, but maybe looking at a different angle. This whole concept of “personal curriculum” really just gives a structure to what I already want to do and gives me a chance to have some output (because if you think I’m not going to share about this as I go along- well you would be very mistaken). 

Ultimately, I’m trying to divide this up into 3 or 4 semesters of study. While I think we could find an overarching theme to what I’m looking at, that’s not what I’m going in with. I’ve just found a couple of things that I want to dive deeper into over the past 6 months or so and I’m creating curriculums for that. 

With all that said, let’s get into my course plans. 

The first course I’ll be working on is the one that I started but didn’t finish- The Titanic “Aftermath”. I’m looking through the media coverage of the disaster, the ensuing congressional hearings, and the perception during the initial year or two following the disaster. I’ve got several books, including a collection of the testimonies from the hearings and a first-hand account of the disaster, that I’m reading. I’ve also got several documentaries and podcasts on tap to go along with my readings. I plan on checking in halfway through and then at the end- just to give an overview of what I’m learning and my thoughts around that. 

The second course I’ll be doing is a Reality Television course. More specifically- a course touching on our general obsession with Reality Television, what it is that brings us in and keeps us hooked to the shows we love and crave. I know I’m not the only one out there who loves to sit down and watch just a good reality tv episode- whether it’s Real Housewives, Members Only, or Sister Wives- I LOVE it all. And I wondered- what is it about these types of shows that just draws us in. What makes it work and last. Now, obviously outside of the books, I’ll have to watch some reality TV as well, maybe rank some shows (or seasons of shows in some cases) and discuss what works for me throughout the course. 

The third course I’ll be diving into will be a course around NASA disasters. I will be going disaster by disaster, examining what happened, what was published, how was it handled, and what changes came from it. I am most excited to read some of the transcripts from mission control and find out what went wrong and where the human factor comes in to play. I’m still early into figuring this curriculum out, so I’m still adding things as I go. NASA does fascinate me (though I don’t want to go to space nor care super strongly about space), so I’m looking forward to getting into this! 

I do have a couple ideas for a final curriculum, but I don’t want to commit just yet as I want to be gentle and not push to much onto my plate. So, we’ll stop with the three for now and I’ll share if/when it changes. Now my focuses aren’t only on the above items, I’ve got other random bits that I’m learning about (such as building an organization from the ground up, learning about different facets of our school district and funding and legislature/advocacy, along with general knowledge about our area and advocacy geared toward that), BUT this is the specific things that I want to cover outside of that. 

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Fall Semester Course Curriculum

There’s a trend going around (or gone around- I’m a little late as I waited to get all of my things set before sharing) about creating our own course curriculums for learning. It is basically a bunch of women giving themselves permission to learn further about the things that intrigue them for nothing more than enjoyment of learning. This was really pushed out be a creator called Elizabeth Jean (@xparmesanprincessx on TikTok) and I’ve not only enjoyed her videos but watching everyone else also come up with their own curriculums. I’ve found some new things to look into for the future!

For me, what I want the course curriculum to be is something that I am interested in, potentially know at a basic level, but want to dig deeper into. I’m trying to steer away from topics that I might have immersed myself in prior (Henry VIII and co I’m looking at you), but I’m also not going to close myself off to them if the desire to go down a path strikes. I’m trying to keep them at the “semester” schedule- so studying across 3 months or so, just to keep myself realistic and have it be enjoyable. 

For my first curriculum I’m going to be engaging on topics that has kind of been at the forefront the past few years, is a big part of history and hoping to tie the two courses together in the coming time. I’ve given myself a syllabus and any writing or research or knowledge I gain over this period I’ll share on here 

So, first I’ll be studying the Titanic- but not the initial disaster, I think we are all very aware of what happened. I’m going to focus on the aftermath, the testimonies, the judgement, the way the news then handled this great disaster. I might try and tie in some other facets (like looking at our modern obsession with the disaster and where that stems from), but I’m not sure about that yet. I’ve picked up some books and done some initial research for this course- which I am titling Witnesses & Headlines: Testimony and Media Coverage of the Titanic Disaster. 

For my reading for this course, I’ve picked up: The Truth About the Titanic by Archibald Gracie IV, Titanic 1912: The Original News Reporting of the Sinking of the Titanic, The Titanic Disaster Hearings by Tom Kuntz, and Titanic on Trial: The Night the Titanic Sank Told Through the Testimonies of her Passengers and Crew. I plan on re watching a couple of more recent documentaries about the Titanic to go along with the course as well.

The second course I’ve picked for myself is a bit of a Gilded Age overview, titled- Class, Power, and Persona: Social Hierarchies of the Gilded Age. I’m going to be looking at social roles, gender dynamics, and class division during the Gilded Age. I think we’re all on the same page when it comes to the Gilded Age (in that we know about it, and we all watch the HBO show, but what was the day to day like? What were the true dynamics? What would it have been like to live in between Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Vanderbilt?). I’m enthralled with learning about the social dynamics and the day to day of era’s long past, much like I imagine someday in the future people might want to know our day by day (ooooofffffff). 

For my reading for this course, I’ve picked up: When the Astor’s Owned New York by Justin Kaplan, A Season of Splendor: The Court of Mrs. Astor in Gilded Age New York by Greg King, The Social Graces by Renee Rosen, and Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart. I am working on trying to find some documentaries or podcasts to go along with these books- if you know any, please let me know!

I do plan on doing all my normal reading during this time period as well and I have added some…topic specific fiction books to read during the time just to enhance the experience. I’m hoping to tie both of these together in a future curriculum covering our obsession with these eras and disasters as well as how they compare to the society of today. Alternately I could tie both these subjects together with the Belle Epoque of Paris and look at the time period as a whole leading up to the disaster of the Titanic.  But who knows, at the end I could completely move on from the subject matter!

I’m really looking forward to spending a bit more time learning this Autumn and just digging deeper into some topics that I want to learn more about. If you could study anything, create your own curriculum, what would it be? I might grab some ideas for future curriculums. 

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