In Book VII of Plato’s Republic, Socrates remarks on how mathematics teaches absolute and abstract truth:

 

Geometry aims at the knowledge of eternal things, not anything perishing and transient. Geometry will draw the soul towards truth, and create the spirit of philosophy…Therefore, nothing should be more sternly laid down than that the inhabitants of your fair city should by all means learn geometry.

 

Each student will get a systematic and thorough understanding of geometry through a specific focus on points, lines, angles, triangles, plane figures, and solid figures.  Geometry is one of the best ways to teach systematic deductive reasoning.  Throughout the course students will use deductive reasoning in order to prove geometric theorems.  Each student will also come to better understand algebraic representations of two and three-dimensional objects, and will use algebraic methods to solve geometry problems.

 

Dr. David Wagner has designed JH Classical’s 9^th grade Geometry course and will be teaching it this upcoming year.  He says, “Geometry truly refines students’ logical reasoning skills by forcing them to work through proofs step by step. Its essential rigor prepares students for higher-level math and thinking.  Like essays, geometric proofs require step by step reasoning and must scrupulously justify every claim made.”  The practice of finding relationships whether in the physical world or the literary requires analysis, theory, and proof.

 

The 9^th grade Biology course designed by Miss Paul will also develop the students’ understanding of the world around them through knowledge of the facts of cellular biology by employing inductive reason through a series of experiments.

 

The course will contain all the elements of a rigorous high school course: cellular biology, principals of life, ecology, and anatomy and physiology. The biology course is enhanced by dissections for complex structures as well as by microscope work during the study of unicellular organisms. There will also be frequent laboratory experiments throughout the year. Miss Paul says, “We will use an inductive approach to the study of kingdoms as students conduct many dissections to compare and contrast various systems.”

 

However, as part of a liberal arts education, the Biology course offers more than factual information. Along with the other disciplines, it trains the student to love and do what is good.  For this reason, the Biology course will include elements of the history of science.  As Susan Wise Bauer has written in her new book The Story of Western Science, “To interpret science, we have to know something about its past. We have to continually ask not just “What have we discovered?” but also “Why did we look for it?”  9^th grade students at JHCA will read primary source documents to learn how scientists of the past grappled with their scientific experiments and the historical impacts of their discoveries.  Miss Paul sees this reading as important to a well-rounded science education, saying, “We will give students a firm foundation in the history and nature of science through examining the texts and experiments of the Great Minds of Western science"

 

The study of biology in the context of a liberal arts education also trains the student to think about science as part of a wider view of the virtues and personal responsibility. Miss Paul says, “Science is useful, but we do not teach science for its utility. Science is a discipline that, like the Humanities, teaches students to wonder, question, discover, and delight in what is good.”