CURRICULUM St. Maximilian Kolbe Academy's curriculum is formed with a classical liberal arts approach to learning. In our philosophy statement we state we will educate each student as a whole person. Classical liberal arts education focuses on what is true, good and beautiful:
To seek and to know the Truth through the exercise of their intellect and memory.
To choose the good and act according to it through the use of their intellect and will.
To be informed and inspired by all that is beautiful through the use of their intellect, imagination and passion.
FOUR ESSENTIAL PARTS OF OUR ACADEMIC CURRICULUM In order to build a solid foundation to aid students in the formation of their character based in their relationship with Jesus Christ, our curriculum is based on four essential parts of all education: ordered basic knowledge, skills and tools for learning, forming the moral imagination, and the principle of correlation between subjects.
Ordered basic knowledge is the knowledge most worth having. It is the knowledge of God and His revelation (theology, which is knowledge by faith as well as reason); of what he has made through His creation (what we can know through science and mathematics and all that is created along with understanding of this knowledge as creation in God’s own image); knowledge of our own humanity, in its thinking (philosophy and the arts), it achievements (history), and it daily acts (moral knowledge). Our goal is to give each student the ability to make judgments about what is true and what is false and to make choices based on these judgments is the goal of leaning basic knowledge in elementary school. Skills and tools of learning are necessary to enable students to learn effectively while in school and to continue to educate and form them throughout their life. Developing the ability in each child to listen attentively, to stick to the point, to speak clearly, to write effectively, and to read critically. In addition, they include competency in logical thinking and mathematical computations. In science they include the ability to observe well, to apply the scientific method and the intellectual virtues to solve problems and explore new creation solutions. Proficiency in the elements of art and music are also developed. Moral imagination is the development of the student’s personal aspirations derived from inspiration and reflection upon the ideals of the good, true and beautiful found within the curriculum and subject matter. Skills and tools give competence, basic knowledge gives the content or truth to be known, but the ideal gives the force, the drive and the hunger. Skills without ideals flicker out and die. Ideals, on the contrary, give life and motivation to learn knowledge, skills and methods. The principle of correlation between subjectsas we transform our curriculum to reflect classical liberal arts methods, our main focus is to develop units in which the students can make connections to all the subjects and where religious instruction occupies a central position. When teaching a specific time in history, the teachers will teach about saints of that era, literature, art, music, politics and church history. Our goal is to design our curriculum so students can see the connectivity of all subject areas.
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND INTEGRATION St. Maximilian Kolbe Academy will continue to assess and promote the culture of academic achievement and integration. St. Max approaches the academic curriculum as a unified, integrated whole ordered to the purpose of education. The core disciplines studied at each stage of the academic curriculum emphasize particular skills, aptitudes and knowledge, which together create an integrated academic curriculum and high academic standards for student achievement. OUTCOME OF EXCELLENCE The outcome of excellence in academic achievement and integration is that St. Maximilian Kolbe Academy students demonstrate a mastery of the academic curriculum. They understand the unity of all subjects and see all knowledge in relationship with reason and the Catholic faith. By rigorously developing their intellectual gifts, our students have a love for learning, look upon the created world with wonder and awe, and increase the intellectual tenor of society. St. Maximilian Kolbe Academy will, therefore, ground their core subjects in excellence in academic achievement and integration, which includes the following considerations: Religion Religion as the study and shared pursuit of the love of God is what unifies the entire curriculum. Belief in God as our Father and the world as His beautiful and rational creation binds faith and reason, nature and culture, art and science, morality and reality into a coherent and integrated unity. While the religion teacher has the special responsibility for rigorous, systematic and compelling instruction in the teachings of the Catholic faith, every teacher in the school has a responsibility for living out this vision, and for integrating these truths into every subject taught at St. Maximilian Kolbe Academy. Art and Music The study of art and music should bring students into contact with beauty as an objective feature of reality that expresses the deep truth of what things are. Objective beauty is desirable for its own sake, not merely subjective preference. Students in 3rd through 8th grade may join choir which meets after school one day a week. Language and Rhetoric Language arts teach students to read well, speak well and think well. To master these skills, students must internalize how language works at the level of individual words and parts of speech as the building blocks of argument. Reading well means reading efficiently and insightfully so as to learn how to appreciate and question a story from the groundings of the Catholic intellectual tradition and be questioned by it. The study of language, rhetoric and literature provides a window into the study of history and culture and therefore serves as an integrated complement. Mathematics Mathematics is the study of structure, order, pattern and relation. At the intersection of induction and deduction, mathematics helps a child see the way the world displays intelligibility and lends that intelligibility to every other subject. Physical Education Physical education offers students an opportunity to train their minds, hearts and bodies through repetition, practice and competitive play. Students should develop a love for play and learn the concentration, self-discipline, and mental stamina required for great physical accomplishments. Science The rigorous study of science begins with the presupposition that all reality — including the physical world — is God’s creation, which has an inherent, ordered meaning. This deep intelligible order can be seen through the study of the natural order and known through reason. This starting point of science provides for a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of reality than the starting point of modern scientific materialism, which takes as its starting point the philosophical presupposition that excludes the reality of the spiritual world and asserts that science is the only way to know the truth about the world and reality. History The study of history and human culture is a study of the human story. It is an exploration into the lived answer to fundamental human questions posed by every generation that, at its deepest, reflects a response to the inherent desire for God. Rigorous engagement with history and culture expands students’ minds to see beyond the limitations of the present moment and one’s own culture. Careful attention to the great virtues of a culture and honest sensitivity to its human failures avoid the extremes of naïve triumphalism and denigration of the gifts of one’s own cultural heritage.
LEARN MORE Contact us by phone: 763-973-2528 or email: [email protected] to request information or schedule a classroom visit and tour.