Scripture, History & Letters
The heart of the year, read closely and discussed: the wisdom books of Scripture, the story of the modern world, the great books of literature, and an introduction to classical oratory.
Bible: Wisdom Literature
Students will gain an appreciation for God’s Wisdom, as seen in the person and work of Christ, by sustained and disciplined inquiry into the wisdom literature of the church as recorded in Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes and Job.
Students will examine the wisdom of Christ as seen in the wisdom literature of Holy Scripture, by doing the following:
Debate different Modern interpretations of the texts through progymnasmata writing exercises of Confirmation and Refutation and oral exercises of the formal dialectic
Become familiar with the way the Modern privileging of Reason overthrew the ancient tradition of wisdom, and see how this effects the reading and application of God’s Holy Word to all of life
Engage in a multiyear study of the use of figures of speech in holy scripture, through use of the text by Bullinger
Find events in the text on geographical maps, and observing the change of maps over time, and locate events in the text on a timeline
Memorize proverbs and psalms and recite or sing them as a class and individually
Apply biblical concepts learned in class to real world situations, so that they will be prepared to apply them to unpredictable situations later in life
Engage in a sustained inquiry into our need for wisdom, as seen in a research paper based in the class reading of the book on biblical wisdom
Pray these scriptures through the adoption of a habitual practice of morning and evening prayer, modeled on Lectio Divina
The student will academically study the same passages they pray, so that God’s Spirit will form both the head and the heart for lifelong love of God’s Word.
Modern History
Students will gain an appreciation for the emergence of modern civilization, from the time of the Reformation and Renaissance through the Age of Revolutions to the present with specific attention given to the Industrial Revolution, World Wars, Cold War, Information Revolution and current Culture War
Students will engage in sustained and disciplined inquiry into modern civilization by doing the following:
Debate different historical interpretations of events such as the morality of entering the World War or dropping the atomic bomb to end it, through writing exercises of Confirmation and Refutation and oral exercises of formal dialectic
Find events in the text on geographical maps, and observing the change of maps over time
Locate events in the text on a timeline and memorization of Geneva Academy timeline for class
Apply insights from historical research to real world, so they will be prepared to apply them to unpredictable events in life
Students will spend extended time developing close reading skills in primary source historical material including but not limited to:
Selections from The Enlightenment Reader
Autobiographies of Ben Franklin
American Foundational Documents
The Origin and Principles of the American Revolution…, by Fredrich Gentz
Communist Manifesto and Russian Revolution readings
Lincoln-Douglas debates, and Lincoln’s Speeches
Selections related to Turner’s Frontier Thesis and Industrialization
Treaty of Versailles
Mein Kampf and readings related to WW2
Selections related to Cold War, Civil Rights Movement, and Fall of the Soviet Union
The teacher will also draw from resources including but not limited to Jackson Spielvogel’s Western Civilization: Since 1500, Volume 2, and Hendrick Van Loon’s Story of America
Literature & Composition
Students will gain an appreciation for the literature of modern civilization from time of the Reformation and Renaissance through the Enlightenment and Romanticism to the emergence of a literary modernity and its transformation into postmodernity.
Students will engage in sustained and disciplined inquiry into the literature of modern civilization by doing the following:
Debate different literary interpretations through writing exercises of Confirmation and Refutation and oral exercises of formal dialectic
Expand their knowledge of writing exercises from Selby’s Classical Composition, focusing on Thesis and Law
Locate literary events on an historical timeline and memorization of Geneva Academy timeline for class
Use experience to interpret texts and apply insights from literature to the real world, so they will be prepared to apply them to unpredictable events later in life
Become familiar with the writing/editing process through weekly rough draft revision in peer editing sessions and teacher corrections
Imitate good writing at the sentence, paragraph and essay level, separating form from content and adapting the form to new content from the student’s own experience
Develop extensive vocabulary and copious writing skills through the use of Erasmus’ writing exercises, and weekly vocabulary games taken from the readings
Memorization of poetry
Students will cultivate close reading skills by reading and debating the interpretation of great works of literature in the primary source, including but not limited to the following:
Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan and Pilgrims Regress by C.S. Lewis, and readings by Jonathan Swift
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly and poetry from Shelly and Byron
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Pit and the Pendulum and various short stories from London and O’Conner
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain or Huckleberry Finn
Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
The Great Gatsby, by Fitzgerald
The teacher will also draw from other literary resources approved by Geneva Academy.
Classical Oratory
Students will study the origin, history, purpose and biblical application of Classical Rhetoric by working through The Rhetoric Companion: A Student’s Guide to Power in Persuasion. The teacher will make selections for classroom reading and discussion from the following:
Selections from The Rhetoric, by Aristotle
Selections from Platonic dialogues
Cicero’s Classical Canons of Rhetoric
Institutes of Oratory, by Quintilian
Classic Rhetoric for the Modern Student by Corbett
A successful student in this class will be able to do the following:
Make interpretations of the text and defend them in civil classroom discussion
Apply the concepts learned to public speaking exercises, such as speech meet
Demonstrate mastery of the progymnasmata exercises by writing persuasive examples of each of the exercises
Remember and be able to recognize the five canons of rhetoric, the three kinds of style, and compose an example of the three genres of rhetoric