Game Theory.
It may be a bit hard to implement, with the subject requiring you to know basic-basic calculus (taking derivatives) and maybe some economics, but really, once you get past that, it's an amazing subject and far better in the long run than something like multivariable calculus. I started a game theory club in my school a while ago, and not only has it gotten people to understand the subject better, but it surprises a lot of the teachers when their pre-cal kids look at a function and take its second derivative without breaking a sweat; and it definitely surprises the history teachers when they start talking about economic models that are supposed to be taught two years later, fitting it in well with their argument. When I used the term "jingoism" a while ago to describe US policy towards the Carribean during the turn of the 19th century, half the class knew what I was talking about completely, either from playing Victoria or from going to game theory club (where I used muckraking in one example), and the other half was utterly confused about what I was saying; a 15 second explanation makes them far more intelligent than the 10 minute discourse my teacher was about to give on a term that was simply inferior.
IMO, if you want the best education in the world, give them a subject several years farther than the guidelines they have now (as an example, teach precalculus instead of geometry and government instead of US history), and let the knowledge that they're supposed to learn in between trickle down as a side effect. That way, they'll have several advanced subjects on top of what we give now in their heads by the time they get a high school diploma. Not to mention that this stuff is usually far more engaging than the snoozer subjects we already know.
It may be a bit hard to implement, with the subject requiring you to know basic-basic calculus (taking derivatives) and maybe some economics, but really, once you get past that, it's an amazing subject and far better in the long run than something like multivariable calculus. I started a game theory club in my school a while ago, and not only has it gotten people to understand the subject better, but it surprises a lot of the teachers when their pre-cal kids look at a function and take its second derivative without breaking a sweat; and it definitely surprises the history teachers when they start talking about economic models that are supposed to be taught two years later, fitting it in well with their argument. When I used the term "jingoism" a while ago to describe US policy towards the Carribean during the turn of the 19th century, half the class knew what I was talking about completely, either from playing Victoria or from going to game theory club (where I used muckraking in one example), and the other half was utterly confused about what I was saying; a 15 second explanation makes them far more intelligent than the 10 minute discourse my teacher was about to give on a term that was simply inferior.
IMO, if you want the best education in the world, give them a subject several years farther than the guidelines they have now (as an example, teach precalculus instead of geometry and government instead of US history), and let the knowledge that they're supposed to learn in between trickle down as a side effect. That way, they'll have several advanced subjects on top of what we give now in their heads by the time they get a high school diploma. Not to mention that this stuff is usually far more engaging than the snoozer subjects we already know.
