All Upper School courses are Honors level. For specific information about the courses offered in each grade and the texts used in each course, click on the grade you wish to review. Westminster Academy considers ALL texts as tools to engage students in dialogue and critical thinking. Our educational pedagogy creates an emphasis on a Socratic and Dialectic approach to education that requires students to consistently go beyond texts and to enter into significant discovery through their own mastery. Upper School is limited to 18 students per class.
7th- 9thGrade
At this age, the child begins to study all areas of knowledge as formal subjects. Because the emphasis has been placed in the earlier years on the skills (or arts) of learning, the students can now confidently begin to work through the particular knowledge in various fields of academics. The skill of analysis, or the ability to break down information, is cultivated - the beginning of the sciences of learning. The development of formal inquiry and observation continue to be developed at a higher level. The focus is now not only correct thinking, but also developing arguments and speaking/expressing in an appropriate and formal way. Formal logic (see Why Logic) is an essential required course at this stage, and these skills are embodied through writing, presenting and debate - both formal and informal. Though logical thinking and instruction has been part of the students’ learning in K-6th grades, they now have the opportunity to see how the construction of formal arguments and formal reason augment the discipline of learning.
10th- 12th
The culmination of classical learning is the synthesis of all learning and the understanding of purpose. These years focus on cultivating within the student an understanding of the philosophy and theology of subjects. The student is urged into advanced studies emphasizing complex reasoning and stylistic expression. While seeking to instill in each student a desire for contemplation and an appreciation for learning, it is important for the student to gain an understanding relationship between the philosophical and practical aspects of life and learning.
Formal Rhetoric (see Why Rhetoric) and Senior Capstone are the anchors at this level. In Rhetoric, students are required to develop, deliver and defend one or two thesis papers before peers, faculty and parents each year (see Rhetoric Presentations). The Senior Capstone course serves as the culmination of our students’ formal education at Westminster. Using authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the class examines the great thoughts of Western culture through a dialogue-intensive structure involving students and our senior faculty.