FAITHFUL, FOCUSED TEACHING IN THE GREAT CATHOLIC TRADITION.
Daily Schedule
Curriculum
The Saint John Paul II Education Guild presents a three-year high school cycle of core humanities and mathematics / science classes. Satisfactory completion of all three years will fulfill Minnesota graduation requirements for English/Language Arts, Social Studies, Mathematics and Science.
Humanities
The Humanities curriculum tracks human literary endeavors from the rise of Greece until the modern age. Students will read the great works of each age, both Catholic and secular, to gain a better understanding of our own post-Christian age and our place in it as Catholics.
Year One: The Fullness of Time | Ancient Greece through Charlemagne
Students will study and analyze the rise of Western civilization from its birth in ancient Greece, its hollow triumph in Rome, and the birth of Christendom in the Age of Charlemagne. Students will read the works of thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, Virgil, Cicero, the Church Fathers, St. Bede, St. Benedict, and others.
Year Two: Christendom | Charlemagne to the Renaissance
Students will study and analyze the advent and flourishing of Christendom in Europe. It was the peak of Christian art, literature, philosophy and theology, and yet a critical eye can discern the confusion and disunion that was to come. Students will read the works of Dante, Chaucer, St. Thomas, Mallory, St. Francis, St. Dominic and others.
Year Three: The Modern Age | Reformation to the 20th Century
Students will study and analyze the world in the aftermath of the Reformation and Enlightenment. The cleaving of Christendom marked the advent of the modern age, one distinguished by an unprecedented disregard for Christian values and understanding, The Church’s answers to these challenges continue to define our age. Students will read the works of Shakespeare, Voltaire, Dostoyevsky, Goethe, Faulkner, Nietzsche, Kant, Hegel, Descartes, Melville, Dickens, and others.
Mathematics and Science
The Math and Science curriculum fully integrates the study of scientific knowledge from the fields of physical science, earth and space science, and life science, with the mathematical skills needed to investigate, analyze, understand and communicate the concepts, structures and connections in these fields. Each year focuses on one of these fields, and includes a balance of skills mastery and higher level problem solving, critical reading, and lab investigations.
Year One: The Physical Sciences I | Physics, Geometry, Algebra II and Trigonometry
The Physical Sciences are organized around five core topics: Structure and the Properties of Matter, Chemical Reactions, Forces and Interactions, Energy, and Waves and Electromagnetic Radiation. The mathematics needed to master these core topics include a study of analytical geometry, and algebraic and trigonometric functions.
Year Two: The Physical Sciences II | Chemistry and Pre-Calculus
Year Two continues the study of chemistry fundamentals begun in Year One. Students will then apply these fundamentals to Space Systems, History of the Earth, Earth Systems and Weather and Climate. The mathematics continues a study of functions and pre-calculus topics, and introductory statistics.
Year Three: The Life Sciences | Biology of Earth and its Organisms; Statistics
The Life Sciences will integrate the chemistry and physical science knowledge learned in Years One and Two with the Life Science core topics: Structure and Function, Inheritance and Trait Variance, Matter and Energy in Organisms and Systems, and Relationships in Ecosystems. The mathematics skills needed for the life sciences are from the field of statistics.