The Explorers
The 6th and 7th grade age represents the transition from childhood to adolescence. This is a dynamic and flexible age in which students might sit down and color one minute, and turn around and engage in an intellectual debate the next. Students' critical thinking skills are maturing as they move from a mindset dominated by concrete thinking to a new, more powerful, abstract mode of understanding. Consider, for example, how during this age math skills begin to shift from basic arithmetic towards the higher levels of pre-algebra and beyond. Members of this age group begin to see connections between various concepts that they hadn't before, and the sense of awe that they experience in response to fantasy is also applied to their rapidly expanding perceptions of the real world. These advancing skills are enabled by profound neurological changes occurring in young adolescent brains. These changes also move students into a more social age. The elementary school days when students could sit together at a table, each engrossed in his or her own work are fading, and a growing focus on peers and social interactions fill young adolescent awareness.
As a result of these changes, we see students of this age group as our Explorers- ready to jump in and discover new lessons about the world. They want to get their hands 'dirty' with tangible experience, while still inhabiting an inner world of dragons and magic. We give them opportunities to explore story and mythology, to create artistic products, to build and understand how things work, and to master the tools of a technological age. These experiences tap into the Explorer's natural energy and desire, while keeping learning fun, engaging, and meaningful.
The 6th & 7th Grade Experience
In the "Year of Self Awareness," Explorers begin with their own lives, and over the course of the year expand their study to family histories, and finally to our national story. These students create personal autobiographies, and later conduct family interviews to understand their larger ancestral narratives. This understanding is deepened by studying scientific perspectives of the body, genetics, and family health histories, as well as through reading literary expressions of family, belonging, and cross-generational journeys. After students have collected and critically examined their individual and family stories, they weave all of the stories into a larger narrative of American history. This task of re-creating the story of America through their own family histories, and performing that story on stage, makes the national narrative personal and compelling. Students connect their own lives to that of their nation's identity through meaningful and relevant self-exploration.
In the year of "Ancient Worldviews," the Explorers look at how three ancient cultures (Greece, India and China) understood their lives scientifically, mythologically, religiously, and mathematically. In addition to looking at important dates and facts of each ancient people, we examine their stories, philosophies, inventions, and discoveries as psychological windows into these influential worldviews. This adventure in understanding helps students reflect on their own world perspectives, how they have constructed and consumed them, and how similar themes of human life appear across time and culture. For example, students designed their own Pandora's box and filled it with what they thought were today's evils. Students then examined the significance of this ancient story's relevance to their own modern observations in a critical writing piece. This comparative exploration of Greece, India, China, and Western worldviews yields a truly global perspective, and our students glean a depth of understanding for which their Explorer minds are newly primed.
