Religion

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Readings: Didache Textbook Series, Scott Hahn's Bible Basics, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Holy Bible

  

 Theology, in the words of Thomas Aquinas, is the “queen of the sciences”, and any educational endeavor properly begins here. All other truth flows from correct theological principles, especially the correct understanding of the human person—made in the image and likeness of God—and finding her purpose in knowing, loving, and serving God in this world and being happy with Him forever in the next.  

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Religion at Our Lady of Solitude is a four-year sequence going deeply into doctrine (with an emphasis on the universal call of holiness), Scripture (the history of salvation, culminating in Jesus Christ), Church history (God's intervention in human history, from the Incarnation till the present day), and moral theology (moral decision-making in light of the ten commandments and teachings of Christ). 

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Integrated Humanities

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Ancient Literature Readings: Holy Bible, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Norse Mythology, Homer's Iliad, Odyssey, Aeschylus's Oresteia, Seven Against Thebes, Sophocles' Antigone, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Virgil's Aeneid

    

Ancient History Readings: Code of Hammurabi, Story of Sinuhe, Epic of Gilgamesh, Holy Bible, Western Heritage Reader, Hesiod's Works and Days, Theogony, Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian Wars, Pericles' "Funeral Oration", Plutarch's Lives, Tacitus' Annals, Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars          

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The study of history, literature, and art coaxes us away from the self-centered and ephemeral, pointing us to eternal, shared realities. A thorough understanding of history, in particular, gives us a firm foundation as we evaluate where we stand in the debates of the day. Ancient, medieval, modern, and American civilizations are studied in a four-year sequence, taught in an integrated way modeled after the Integrated Humanities Program pioneered by John Senior at the University of Kansas. Senior year (American civilization) includes civics and economics. Writing and public speaking, review of English grammar and vocabulary, and making ordered, logical arguments are incorporated.

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Mathematics

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Readings: Making Math Meaningful Textbook Series, Schneider's A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe, Euclid's Elements

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Mathematics is indispensable to a classical education. Math describes the reality of God’s creation and is essential to the pursuit of the good, true, and beautiful. Mathematical reasoning trains the mind to proceed from the practical to the abstract, from the visible to the invisible. Mathematics should be taught in the context of the intellectual heritage of the West–Xeno, Pythagorus, Descartes, Newton, etc. A four year sequence includes two years of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and advanced math. 

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We believe a thorough high school education should culminate with calculus. While not everyone has the aptitude to understand complicated calculus computations in high school, all girls can and should leave high school with an appreciation of limit, derivative, and significance. These ideas are some of the most important of Western civilization, standing at the pinnacle of Western science and philosophy. Appreciating them is an attainable and worthy goal for any high school girl. 

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A final note: Test preparation is not the source or summit of a good education. But standardized tests will play a role in many girls’ lives during high school. For that reason, it is reasonable for parents to expect that their girls will be prepared for standardized tests such as the PSAT by the end of sophomore year and the SAT by the end of junior year. 

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Natural History and Science 

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Readings: Selections from Jean-Henri Fabre, Novare Textbook Series

 

Careful observation of creation awakens wonder and develops attentiveness, helping girls to grow in knowledge of the Divine Creator. A four year sequence includes natural history (including local trees, birds, soil, and rock formations), physics, chemistry, and biology. All levels include labs. Our sequence reverses the order that became popular in the early 1900s, when biology and chemistry were considered “simpler” subjects than physics. Since that time, our knowledge of biology and chemistry has grown tremendously. Understanding them at a modern level is greatly enhanced by leveraging physics to understand chemistry and biology. Additionally, chemistry is more easily mastered when girls have mastered a significant amount of algebra. You can read more about why it makes sense to return to a “physics first” approach here. 

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Latin

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Readings: Latin by the Natural Method Textbook Series

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The study of Latin offers both norms and nobility. Besides being the liturgical language of the West for more than a thousand years, the language of Virgil, St. Jerome, and St. Thomas Aquinas, Latin offers the student unparalleled mental training. Being immersed in the deep structure of language in a highly disciplined, ordered way is both a worthy end in itself and a priceless foundation for logic, science, law, medicine, and modern languages.  

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Music 

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Music orders our affections, gives courage, and grows friendship. Music is internalized and shapes our souls in a powerful way. For this reason, folk music and traditional ballads will be taught.

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Workshops 

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Over four years, girls proceed through several workshops.  The liberal arts and the practical arts ought to complement one another, grounding us in the real. Subjects could include: personal organization and study skills, gardening and permaculture, speech, etiquette and hospitality, college and workforce readiness, child development, personal finance, practical study of prayer and discernment, understanding the liturgy and lectionary, entrepreneurship, and swing dancing.

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Physical Education

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A true education develops the body, not just the mind. “Only the body is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine” (St. John Paul II). Athletics foster skills for a lifetime: confidence, asceticism, and grace in both victory and defeat.