An Auraic Academy, part 2: curriculum overviews and that stuff

 I’m picking up where I left off last week, on the Auraic Academy. Today, I thought I’d cover classes, which are a very important part of, you know, being a school. 

The academy has a handful of ways to determine what classes students take. Every student has certain classes they must take every year or almost every year; those are core classes. There are also non-core classes, which are further divided into graduation requirements (you have to take the class for a given number of semesters, usually but not always in a given year/years) and electives (you don’t have to take any specific ones but you do have to cover a certain number of credits). 

The average student takes 9 classes a semester (this is more than in a typical American middle or  high school, but most of the noncore classes don’t have too much homework or classwork anyways), 6 of which are core classes and 3 of which are noncore classes. You can add an additional class per semester starting in sophomore year, which is usually only taken by people who need a graduation requirement or want to take another elective. There are 2 semesters in a year (ending at the end of December and May), and people are students at the academy for 7 years, from 6th grade to 12th grade. 6th through 8th grade are the middle school, and 9th through 12th are high school (high school is further divided into lower division which is 9th-10th and upper division which is 11th-12th). 

The 6 core classes are mathematics, English (literature and composition, not as a foreign language), science, history, magical theory and practice, and self defense. 

Math, English, science, and history are pretty standard classes. The school covers both magical and nonmagical history, emphasizing the nonmagical history more in high school (because a lot of people take the AP history exams). 

Self defense is a combination of PE (which is a 3-semester graduation requirement of its own) and non magical methods of self defense, with magical spells and protections in addition. It is required because several people in power think that it “increases confidence and protects our children” (read: it’s traditional and people think it’s a good thing even though they like to call themselves pacifists). Important spells include shielding and healing spells. 

Magical theory and practice is sort of a catch all. I’m the middle school, it’s more about learning to use magic and cast spells in a safe manner, but by the time you get to high school it’s more of a deep dive into theory, especially how magic interacts with the world on a fundamental level. The expectation is that students will be able to understand magic, not just use it. 

Noncore classes are a little more complicated, especially graduation requirements. I’m going to give the total graduation requirements first, then break it down by grade, then cover electives. I think I’ll describe the non-core classes themselves maybe next week, as I want to see if I can make a course catalog for them. 

The full graduation requirements are as follows, divided by area of study. Cultural Studies: Culture & Traditions (4 semesters), Nonmagical Life (4 semesters), House Studies (6 semesters, which must be from sophomore to senior year), Foreign Language (6 semesters of the same language). Planetary and Ecological Studies: Astronomy (1 semester), Geomancy (1 semester), Magical Plants (2 semesters), Magical Creatures (2 semesters). Health: PE (3 semesters, includes classes on health and living well), Morality (1 semester). 

Plenty of people, after meeting graduation requirements, take these classes as electives; in fact, the current C&T teacher has the dubious distinction of not taking any electives except Culture and Traditions for an entire seven years. 

The expected schedule for graduation requirements does not list any semesters of electives, as those are presumed to happen anyways. In 6th grade, students take a full year of C&T, a full year of NML (non-magical life), a semester of PE, and a semester of Morality (they cannot take electives this year). In 7th grade, it’s a year of Magical Plants, a year of C&T, and a semester of PE. In 8th grade, they take a year of Magical Creatures, a year of NML, and a semester of PE. Sometimes students choose to take their third PE semester as a 7th grade elective, and take a full year elective as an 8th grader. In 9th grade, they take a year of a foreign language, a semester of astronomy, and a semester of geomancy. In 10th grade, they begin their House Studies class, which is a full year, and take another full year of a foreign language. 11th grade has the same expected classes as 10th grade, so House Studies and a foreign language. 12th grade only requires the House Studies class. 

Some of this can be switched around based on what you want to do and every required class can be taken as an elective credit if you want to do more advanced work and continue with the subject, so if you want to you could take a foreign language starting in 7th grade and take it all the way through 12th grade or do multiple foreign languages, or you could take astronomy and geomancy as a 7th or 8th grader instead. The only classes which can’t be moved earlier in the curriculum are the House Studies courses, which must be taken in the last three years because they require advanced magical theory knowledge and decent practical skills; additionally, you must take the 6th grade curriculum in 6th grade, with no electives (a long history of people who managed to make a mess of non magical life or magical culture means that those subjects have to be started early so there’s some time to practice, and morality is required so that people understand how their choices affect other people). 

Magical electives (anything related to magic rather than something you’d find at a normal school) are usually taken to get certain proficiencies. The Auri government has a two-tiered proficiency system for magical subjects/fields of study; there are Proficiency Certificates, or certificates, which represent basic competency or proficiency in the subject, and then there are Masteries in a subject, which show a dedication to a subject and a high level of achievement (Masteries require having a certificate in the same subject). These are always listed as titles when giving formal introductions (Mastery is always capitalized, although certificates may not be). Jobs often have minimum requirements for proficiencies, like needing a certificate in Magical Animals and a certificate in Healing (having a mastery in one or the other might also be required, or a number of certificates but not specific ones) to qualify as a veterinarian. Another example would be the Deputy Head of the academy, who also teaches various advanced math classes and the Spellcrafting elective. They have a Mastery in Spellcrafting, a Mastery in Spellcasting Languages, and certificates in Geomancy, Linguistics, Temporal/Auril Studies (which is the specific House Studies required for those of House Auril), and Healing (which is a common extra certificate for teachers and others who handle experiments which could backfire). 

Most electives (and Geomancy, Astronomy, NML, C&T, Magical Plants, Magical Creatures, and House Studies) have a 3 year Proficiency Program. Basically, you can take a beginning class, then an intermediate class, then an advanced class, and after that you repeat the advanced class but do an independent study project that goes deeper; if you complete at least through the advanced class and pass the required tests, you qualify for a certificate in that field. For graduation requirements, the rules are similar, except you’ve already taken at least one semester out of the 6 required, so fewer classes are needed. 

If you continue with the elective and work on independent studies, you begin to work towards a mastery in that subject, although most people do masteries after they finish with formal schooling (exceptions: a small minority of students each year, usually people like the current C&T teacher, take an elective so much that they take mastery tests in it and present a mastery project during school, getting a mastery by their senior year). You don’t have to take masteries, but at least 2 certificates (plus a House Studies certificate) are required to graduate; most people take between 3 and 5 certificates during school. You can study for certificates and masteries once you graduate as well. A lot of people self study during their time at (non magical) college and get additional certificates in fields the academy doesn’t offer. That’s actually how the Deputy Head got their Linguistics certificate — in college, they majored in math and minored in linguistics, then studied magical applications of linguistics for a certificate while they worked on a math PhD.

This is a list of the areas of study for electives and the classes available every year; I have not listed the classes that already fall under graduation requirements because even though you can take them as additional electives they’ve already been listed. Enrichment (mostly non-magical subjects; no certificates or proficiency programs, although they offer AP Computer Science Principles): Band, Orchestra, Choir, Art, Drama, Computer Science, Textile Crafts. Research: Spellcrafting, Spellcasting Languages, Potionmaking (also counts for the Health area), Divination, Numerological Predictions. Cultural Studies: Auraic History, Aurie Language. Health: Healing, Potionmaking. 

This is really long, so I’ll cover specific class descriptions next week and maybe teachers/staff the week after, or clubs. I may describe some of the students I’ve created too, both current and former, if I want to. I have lots of ideas about this academy and I’m enjoying writing so much about it! Let me know what you think!