Younger Level Elements of Study

At the beginning of their high school career, students are introduced to these universal elements of study blended with a personalized "great work" to help them achieve solid footing with the ideas of culture and identity:

Social and Cultural Anthropology

Social and cultural anthropology is the comparative study of culture and human societies. It explores the general principles of social and cultural life, and the characteristics of specific societies and cultures for the sake of human understanding.

Psychology

Psychology is the study of behavior and experience. Psychology has taken a leading role in the investigation of the relationship between physiological processes and human experience. This course will focus on developmental (lifespan) psychology and social psychology as a reflection of what it means to become an adult.

Geography

Geography is concerned with place, and since this curriculum is designed around a pedagogy of place there is no more relevant subject for MHS to include. Geography is also an important next step from Economic Geography for the students who were in Montessori middle schools.

Economics

Economics consists of an introduction to microeconomics, macroeconomics, international economics, and development economics, grounded in an intense experience of learning about the school business. Using the school business as case study, the students will see why Maria Montessori saw money as "the golden key that opens the door of supra-nature," integral to environmental studies.

Business and Management

The Business and Management course of study will focus on organizational structure, marketing, human resources, and accounting and finance. All of this will be done through the context of the school business. Students will plan, run, and improve a school business, and each student will spend several hours a week working on the school business. Social and ethical roles of business enter into the developmental aspects of the high school.

Homo Faber

The Homo Faber ("Man the Maker") experience will allow each student to develop a new product that is useful. With a historical look at invention and product development, students will begin to think about how they could help some aspect of their world improve.

Social Studies

Social studies for MHS at this level is also unique: the focus is on utopia. How has the development of certain utopias presaged history, and how has the push toward utopia challenged people to think in new and creative ways to advance human culture? The students will explore real and fictional utopias in three chronological blocks: the first cities up until the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution; the early 1800's up to 1960; and the present and future place for utopian thinking.

Biodiversity, Evolution, Organic Chemistry, and Physics

Science at MHS is always embedded in place studies; using sustainability and ecology as overarching themes means that biology does prevail with the support of integrated chemistry and physics. Historical experiments will be studied and recreated, and students will spend a considerable amount of time in the lab with a hands-on focus.

Mathematics: Algebra and Geometry, Introduction to Statistics

As the students will be producing a quantitative analysis research project in both Psychology and Social and Cultural Anthropology, they will need to know elementary statistics. A historical and cultural look at mathematics will allow for the telling of stories of certain mathematicians who advanced the role of mathematics in science, technology, and economics and literally changed cultures in some instances.

Second Language-Spanish

Our global environment demands that citizens be proficient in more than one language. In the United States, the number of Spanish-speaking people continues to rise. Students will therefore begin a study of Spanish. For those students who come to MHS with introductory knowledge of the language, they will continue their study wherever they left off at their prior schools. Native speakers of Spanish may choose another language through individual tutoring or the foreign language department at Case Western Reserve University.

Literature

Literature will coincide with time frames in the utopia studies. The students will explore genre and form within the context of 19th- and 20th century literature.

Arts

Students will spend extensive time exploring music, drama, and the visual arts. The University Circle campus will provide students with multiple experiences to work with experts in these three fields. Students will both study the history of each section and produce original work.

Sports

Students will spend considerable time each school day after classes at the fields and in the gymnasium in physical education. There are various opportunities for skill development-a school rowing club, squash, yoga, strength training, running, and biking-and team sports in soccer and basketball.

Older Level Elements of Study: IB