Ninth Grade Curriculum

Ninth grade students live in a state of dramatically different contrasts in emotion and experience. Things are black and white, happy or sad, wonderful or terrible. And whichever state they’re in (and it changes from moment to moment) is large and all consuming. This developmental stage is the guiding principle underlying the academics for this year. In Comedy & Tragedy, the curriculum contrasts Greek tragedy and Charlie Chaplin and Moliere, for example; in History through Art, students look at artwork not only in terms of composition, but also how light and dark play into the artistic work of the great masters. Ninth grade chemistry experiments include spectacular chemical reactions, which the students then have to record in an exacting scientific manner. And this theme continues throughout year in main lessons, literature and the class play.