Scripture, History & Letters
The capstone humanities: the four Gospels, biblical civics and the obligations of citizenship, American history and literature, Economics II, and the Senior Thesis of Rhetoric IV.
Bible: Jesus & the Four Gospels
Students deepen their love of the person and work of Jesus through an examination of the ways in which the four gospels all point toward the same Jesus, while having stylistic differences that enhance the literary portrait of our Savior.
Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of how the texts they study were used in modern debates about the historical Jesus among other faiths, through writing exercises of Encomium and Viturpation and oral exercises of the formal dialectical method.
Students will engage in sustained and disciplined inquiry into the life and work of the Apostle Paul by doing the following:
Debate different modern interpretations of the biblical gospel through writing exercises and oral exercises of formal dialectic
Become familiar with the way the different Gospels were used in the life of the church, 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 sections of the gospels 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 the interpretation of the controversy surrounding the life and work of Jesus, as seen in a research paper based in the class reading of a book on finding the one Jesus in the four gospels
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.
Biblical Civics: The Obligations of Christian Citizenship
The student will gain a working knowledge of the constitutional polity of their local church. We will then focus on local city of Roseburg, Douglas County, Oregon and American constitutional order, to be able to discharge their civic duty as a citizen for the Glory of God. They will trace the development and corruption of constitutional order through time.
A successful student will be able to do the following:
Describe a narrative of American History from revolution to now, through the supposed “four” American Revolutions and Republics. The student will give appropriate balance to both continuity and change in the description of the past of our beloved America.
The teacher will use primarily teacher made resources in addition to existing resources on The Federalist and Anti-Federalist Debates.
American History
Students will gain an appreciation for the continuity and discontinuity that exists between ancient, medieval and our American civilization.
Building on their extensive knowledge of the ancient and medieval worlds, students will engage in sustained and disciplined inquiry into the American civilization by doing the following:
Debate different historical interpretations of controversial American events through writing exercises of Encomium and Viturpation 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 the Geneva Academy timeline for the 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:
Various early explorers and colonial era literatures
Selections from Of Plymouth Plantation, by William Bradford and other puritan writings
American Revolutionary era pamphlets
Democracy in America, by De Tocqueville and other travel record literature
Gilded Age and Industrial Revolution and Westward Expansion selections
Mexican-American War and Civil War, from Battle Cry Freedom
Selections from Marie Chestnut and other diaries
Reconstruction and Radical Republicanism political documents
World War I & II documents
Great Depression and “New Deal” documents
Progressive era and emigration selections
Cold War era selections up to the Fall of the Soviet Union
Korea, Vietnam and Civil Rights Era documents
9/11 and the War on Terror
Teacher will draw from volume Kidd’s American History narrative, as well as one and two of A Concise History of the American Republic, by Samuel Eliot Morison, Henry Steele Commager, et al. and other sources.
American Literature & Composition
Students will gain an appreciation for the literature of American civilization from the founding to the present.
Students will engage in sustained and disciplined inquiry into the literature of American civilization by doing the following:
Debate different historical interpretations through writing exercises of Encomium and Viturpation and oral exercises of formal dialectic
Locate literary events on an historical timeline and memorization of Geneva Academy timeline for the 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 American 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:
Paradise Lost, by Milton
The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne and other early American selections
Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman and other American poetry
Moby Dick, and short stories by Herman Melville
The Fable, or other selections from William Faulkner
The Sun also Rises, or other selections from Ernest Hemingway
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
Short Story collections from famous American authors like J.D. Salinger and Flannery O’Conner
Other selections depending on the class and teacher judgment
The teacher will also draw on collections or anthologies of American Literature as appropriate
Economics II: Intermediate Micro & Macro Economics
Students will individually apply the general topics learned through goal setting. They will also study, in depth, the following topics: fiat currency, fractional reserve banking, the history of central banking, differing theories of economic growth and the problem of externalities and different kinds of responses. The successful student will also be able to
GDP
The Wealth of Nations and Economic Growth
Growth, Capital Accumulation, and the Economics of Ideas
Savings, Investment, and the Financial System
Personal Finance
Unemployment and Labor Force Participation
Inflation and Quantity Theory of Money
Business Fluctuations
Business Cycle Theories
Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve
Fiscal Policy
Students will engage in a sustained and disciplined inquiry into the following primary sources about economics including by not limited to selections from:
Economic Sophisms, by Frederic Bastiat or Rhetoric of Economics by McCloskey
Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith
The Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by Keynes
Rhetoric IV: Senior Thesis
This is the capstone of the students Geneva rhetorical education. The student will research, write and publicly defend their position on a controversial thesis of public importance. Students will prepare by researching and writing and delivering a speech at the speech meet, done to MLA standards. A student who successfully completes this could will be able to:
Draft lines of inquiry for the purpose of researching a topic, and know of places to look
Draft, edit and revise thesis statements for papers, speeches and debates
Draft, format, edit, revise and publish a substantial research paper in MLA format on both a controversial and non-controversial subject
Draft, edit, revise, memorize and deliver a speech, employing appropriate rhetorical techniques for an audience
Present and orally defend a well-researched thesis
Do all of the above with grace and eloquence