Foundations of the St. Thomas
Middle School (STmS)
2010:
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Table of Contents
ST. THOMAS SCHOOL MISSION AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES .................................................... 3
THE ST. THOMAS SCHOOL JOURNEY ............................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 4
VISION ........................................................................................................................................................ 4
GUIDING PRINCIPLES ............................................................................................................................ 5
CURRICULUM WITH COHERENCE .............................................................................................. 6
COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS.......................................................................................................... 8
COMMITMENT TO CHARACTER ................................................................................................ 11
CLIMATE FOR LEARNING ............................................................................................................. 14
ST. THOMAS MIDDLE SCHOOL OUTCOMES ................................................................................. 15
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................... 18
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ST. THOMAS SCHOOL MISSION AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES
The mission of St. Thomas School is to develop responsible citizens of a global society. In partnership
with parents, we inspire and motivate intellectually curious students. Our small, nurturing
environment supports the acquisition of a broad academic foundation with an emphasis on critical
thinking, leadership skills, and the development of strong character and spiritual awareness.
Curriculum with Coherence • Commitment to Character • Community of Learners • Climate for Learning
THE ST. THOMAS SCHOOL JOURNEY
At STS, students embark on an educational journey from the moment they enter school.
At the heart of the program are our Guiding Principles. We believe that a child’s
educational journey must be balanced between the academic and affective domains.
Within the academic domain, core knowledge,
skills and understandings are developed
across seven primary disciplines.
Within the affective domain our
focus putting nine core virtues into
action.
We believe that certain skills
transcend specific disciplines and
grade levels. Therefore, five core
learning skills are integrated
throughout the curriculum:
communication, technology,
thinking, research, and selfmanagement. Academically, students are
expected not only to acquire knowledge and
skills, but to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate what they learn. In support of
growth of character and spirit, students engage in experiences that call upon them to
explore, reflect, choose, act, and lead.
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INTRODUCTION
The STS experience is an intentional journey. Each stage of the journey contains purposeful
steps, starting with the Early Learning Center serving Preschool through Primary, which is then
followed by the Elementary Center, serving 1st through 4th grades, and culminates with St.
Thomas Middle School (STmS), serving 5th through 8th grades. At each stage of the journey, the
continuous program thoughtfully addresses the developmental needs of children academically,
socially, and emotionally. At STmS, students will reach the essential final stage of the STS
journey, acquiring the habits of mind, social leadership, and intellectual skills that create a solid
foundation for a lifetime of achievement and personal success.
At STmS, our students step into the world of early adolescence, an amazing time of neurological
growth as the brain increases its connections at a rate not seen since early childhood and that
will not ever be seen again. The importance of an emotionally safe, rigorously challenging
environment cannot be overstated. The STmS program prepares the adolescent not only for
high school but also for the challenges of college and adulthood by developing our students in
leadership, refining study and organizational skills, and providing these young people with an
understanding of their own gifts and character traits.
VISION
At St. Thomas School, the Middle School prepares our young men and women for the
next stage of their journey through rigorous academic achievement, ethical leadership, a
powerful understanding of themselves and others, and engaged global citizenship.
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GUIDING PRINCIPLES
STS remains committed to developing programs that honor its own long-established history,
reflecting current research, and representing our collective experience in meeting the needs of
students and parents. The second half of the 20th century has seen a considerable push to
understand the particular needs of the early adolescent. Brain research from recent decades
also has informed our understanding of the particular needs of this stage of childhood. The
National Middle School Association, reflecting this accumulation of research, has outlined the
essential attributes of a successful program. This research helps frame the critical indicators of
success for the STmS program.
The Essential Attributes for Young Adolescents
Developmentally responsive model: Understanding the particular needs of students of
this age is the foundation for program and curriculum development.
Challenging expectations for all: Recognizing that each student’s needs to be challenged
in all areas of school life from the academic, physical, and social establishes high
expectations for each individual child.
Empowering each individual: Providing all students with the academic and social
knowledge and skills allows our students to take responsibility for their lives, to engage
in life’s challenges, to be the creators of knowledge, and to seek achievement in all areas
of their lives.
Equitable learning for all: Advocating for each student’s right to be fully challenged in
all domains of their lives ensures that our students’ journeys will be one with purposeful
challenge and relevant, meaningful, engaging learning opportunities for each student
with a clear acknowledgement that every child’s learning trajectory is important.
Developing an awareness of others: Developing the human potential of each requires a
heightened understanding of the capabilities and resources of others, not only from
one’s own culture and values but also an understanding of how to solve problems and
learn together, locally and globally.
These understandings form the basis of the subsequent guiding principles.
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CURRICULUM WITH COHERENCE
The curriculum is rigorous, exploratory, integrated, and relevant and reflects the significant
developmental stages of the young adolescent.
The STmS curriculum is rooted in the broader curricular structures of the whole school. The
STmS years offer learning experiences that ready our students for the transition to high school,
college, and the needs of society, and also cultivates habits of mind for life-long learning. It also
speaks directly to the questions and concerns of students of this age. Each student must
experience challenge in academic, social, and physical domains. Students experience the
fundamental building blocks within each content area as well as experiencing units and projects
organized around an overarching unifying theme or integrated project that bring different
subject areas together in meaningful ways. Each year in STmS reflects a broad developmental
challenge, such as the 8th Grade’s Renaissance Mind, that enriches each student’s journey. They
must experience exploratory, integrative, and relevant opportunities. Units and projects
incorporate complex tasks that focus upon the big ideas behind key subject areas and the major
issues of today. The STmS curriculum and program is founded upon and dedicated to an
understanding of the cognitive, social-emotional, and physical growth of our students at an
exhilarating stage of their development.
An emphasis on rational, critical, and creative thinking permeates the curriculum.
The rigor of the STS program is constructed of two core elements: a grasp of the core
foundational content knowledge in each subject area, and the ability to develop attendant
thinking skills at differing levels. The Socratic manner in which ideas are discussed in the
classroom elicits different levels of thinking and different types of thought from our students.
This emphasis on thinking skills is reflected in the architecture of the curriculum standards, in
the assignments that the students embark upon, and within the assessment devices that capture
our students’ performances and understanding. Our students do not merely study history, but
learn to think like a historian. They do not merely carry out experiments, but think like a
scientist. Each subject area seeks to elicit an understanding of the “big ideas” that define that
subject area along with the critical process skills that characterize that type of thought.
Differing models such as Bloom’s Taxonomy and Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences
theory inform such practices. Once key content and skills are gained, and our students
internalize their meaning, creative responses in all subject areas are elicited.
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The teachers use varied and ongoing effective assessments that allow students to reflect on
learning, and teachers to reflect on practice.
Effective assessment is a critical part of the program at STS, which seeks to contribute
meaningfully to both teachers and students. Assessment is a continuous and integral function
of instruction that helps inform teachers as they design their course material and approaches.
Such assessment helps students understand what type of knowledge and performance is
valued. The ultimate aim of assessment is to educate and to improve student performance.
Each classroom should have a carefully crafted balance between formative assessment for the
advancement of learning and summative assessment for the evaluation of leaning. There is
emphasis not only on the key elements of content areas but also on how students think, and
how they cultivate a sense of independence, responsibility, and other habits of mind that secure
achievement.
Our students frequently find the criteria for assessment specified in advance, often in the form
of a rubric that defines the levels of quality for assessing performance, demonstrations, projects,
or similar work. They experience examples of quality work or performance to model
excellence. Our students experience opportunities to reflect upon their own work, that of their
peers, and also representative experts in their fields in a positive, constructive manner. They
will often see their teachers becoming coaches, where they nurture each student’s growth and
sharpen their practice, honoring that making mistakes is part of the essential risk-taking
process. A variety of assessment strategies capture these processes such as journals, portfolios,
demonstrations, and presentations. Not only do we concern ourselves with assessing
knowledge and understanding, but also critically important is assessing the children’s own
attitudes and beliefs about themselves. Possessing powerful and positive beliefs about
themselves and about their roles in the world is critical in cultivating risk-takers and problemsolvers. Self-assessment allows for personal growth and metacognitive learning.
Health and wellness are supported by the curriculum, by school-wide programs, and in related
policies.
Our students develop and maintain healthy minds and bodies and they will understand their
own physical development. Health, wellness, and safety are valued throughout the school.
Health education is key curricular area connected to the Physical Education, Science, and Life
Skills programs. STmS addresses the risks accompanying the use of tobacco and drugs,
unhealthy eating habits, lack of exercise, and sexual activities. STmS emphasizes lifelong
physical activities and fitness programs. Intramural and co-curricular activities support these
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goals and are developmentally appropriate, open to the entire student body, and fully embrace
national standards. Students are recognized for gains made towards fulfilling personal goals
through individual wellness profiles. Outside experts are brought into the community to
address early adolescent health issues and concerns.
COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS
A personal setting, a small school, and connection to the whole school body create community
As our young adolescents experience rapid neurological and physical growth and experience
significant hormonal changes during the process of being transformed into young men and
women, a small school setting supports each individual’s growth with an emphasis on positive
personal relationships with peers, students of all ages, and caring adults. The individual
attention helps foster a sense of belonging and identity. Opportunities for mentorship within
the STmS between different aged groupings, as well as moments of engagement with students
across the school also create important sense of community. Our students develop important
relationships with faculty members in a variety of settings from subject classes to advisory
settings to community meetings. Within a small community, leadership moments are easily
generated as our Middle School students are respected and admired by both the younger
students and faculty members alike.
Equally important at this stage is the development of an understanding of others. Just as
personal identity matures rapidly in this age group, relationships with others become
paramount. Thus, students learn that leadership does not always mean being the leader, but
involves cooperative relationships to achieve mutual goals, drawing on the unique strengths
and differing values and cultural backgrounds of each individual within a group. In a
community of mutual understanding, learning becomes a place for students to educate each
other.
The teachers use multiple learning and teaching approaches.
STmS recognizes that students of this age have distinctive developmental needs. The selection
of learning and teaching strategies supports meeting these needs. Supported by a coherent,
planned curriculum, teachers connect to the existing skills, abilities, interests, and prior
knowledge of the students. The use of multiple intelligences and knowledge of individual
learning styles informs classroom practice. Our active students need physical movement,
engagement, and interaction. Teaching strategies include direct, teacher-centered instruction
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balanced with opportunities for students to experience opportunities for framed individual
exploration, creative expression, and investigative inquiry. Individual differences can be
incorporated through frequent opportunities for student choice within classes and projects.
Our students experience different types of collaborative and cooperative learning. They must
learn to work as individuals, as teams, and as a class community. Instructional materials
encourage multiple view-points and challenge young adolescents with new ideas and
paradigms. Fostering an awareness of local, regional, national, and global connections is deeply
valued. The walls of our classrooms enlarge as our STmS students engage with members of the
wider community both within the school from the presence of expert visitors and off-campus on
service learning projects and field trips.
The teachers act as leaders in a collaborative team.
Holding a common vision that has been determined by all team members who work with our
young adolescents, the teachers are committed to and are knowledgeable about this age group,
educational research, and best practices. Reflecting the need to tend to the whole child, teachers
do not merely teach subject material but are actively involved in supporting all areas of student
growth. They work together as a leadership team to build a culture of collaboration that values
input from all members of the school community, encouraging leadership skills in the students
and each other, and draw upon the expertise, knowledge, and passion of the parental and wider
community.
Effective research-based organizational structures create purposeful learning and build
community.
The interdisciplinary team: The team structures allow for teachers of different subject areas to
come together to plan and reflect upon individual students as well as common units and
projects. This also is mirrored in opportunities to bring students together with teachers of more
than one discipline at a time for a deeper learning experience. The interdisciplinary team has an
important role in enriching the whole program. Opportunities are sought for small teams of
two to three teachers to meet to plan, prepare, and discuss, which create a collegial focus.
Common planning time: Every opportunity for common planning time is grasped so that
teams can plan ways to integrate the curriculum, analyze assessment data, examine student
work, discuss current research, and reflect on the effectiveness of instructional approaches
being used.
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Schedule: The schedule seeks to provide larger blocks of class time to enable teaching teams to
conduct valuable learning experiences such as field trips, debates, mock trials, service learning
projects as well as to provide grade-level meeting times.
Keeping teams of students and teachers together: Acknowledging the young adolescent’s
need to be known by and be cared about on the part of adults whose roles are critical to them, it
is important to keep teams of teachers together and students together for as long as possible to
help establish sustained relationships with students and with parents and families.
Supporting transitions: Holding the idea of the journey as an important model for each child,
moments for the community to mark rites of passage are held with importance. The 4th grade
year, while not an official part of STmS, carefully offers our students a set of tools and
experiences that ready them for the greater independence and autonomy of the Middle School
years. The 8th Grade Graduation, for example, allows the community to witness the skills,
poise, values, and maturity that the students have acquired from their time at STS. Other rites
of passage include service learning experiences, special field trips, important Chapel moments,
and class presentations and performances. As 4th grade students and families prepare to enter
the world of STmS, they are prepared fully for the transition in the Middle School world. As
our 8th graders prepare to leave St. Thomas School, they and their families receive guidance and
support within a special ongoing transition program to provide skills and experiences that will
see our students successfully move on to their next stepping stone.
The students thrive in an inclusive community that involves a partnership with parents and the
broader community and both respects and celebrates the diversity of backgrounds and values
comprised in our community.
Partnership with Parents: Acknowledging that the needs of Middle School students can be
different from those of early or middle childhood, STS encourages parents to stay partnered
with the school. Strong communication channels exist in the quest to balance carefully
students’ need to acquire more autonomy and a deeper sense of community, with the parental
need to stay abreast of an increasingly complex world of academic and social demands. The
school seeks to promote and support parenting skills through sponsoring parent education
programs, creating and maintaining links between home and school, initiating volunteer
programs, and establishing coordinated home-school learning experiences. Formal and
informal out-of-school learning plays a critical role in a child’s life, and the school’s seeks a
constructive role in encouraging such activities and honoring children’s abilities and talents
gleaned by out of school experiences within the community.
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Partnership with the Community: Students at this age level are ready to engage with the
broader community. As they engage with local, national, and global concerns, partnerships
with individuals, businesses, and organizations become increasingly important. Community
representatives or experts can come into the school building, or the students can use the tools of
technology or go out into the field to engage with civic, community, and/or environmental
concerns. Service learning projects allow for students to plan carefully coordinated projects that
involve such community liaisons.
COMMITMENT TO CHARACTER
STmS cultivates effective dispositions of mind.
Students at STmS are encouraged to be autonomous learners as well as to be effective in pairs
and in larger team situations. Cultivating dispositions of mind such as open-mindedness,
cooperation, responsibility, communication, flexibility, intellectual risk-taking, inquiry, and the
ability to evaluate the team’s performance are all critical elements of being part of being a team
member along with preparing the individual for leadership roles in society. Such an approach
is underscored by STS’s set of core virtues: gratitude, responsibility, respect, courage,
integrity, tolerance, compassion, perseverance, and generosity.
The STmS journey is a process of investigation and discovery, and inherent in that process is the
willingness to experiment with solutions and test out differing ideas. We want our children to
persevere through challenge, and apply a variety of strategies when solving challenging
problems. They understand that resourcefulness and reflective analysis are important. We want
our children to see themselves as mathematicians, scientists, artists, and writers.
Each student’s academic and personal development is supported by an adult advocate.
The advocate: A key need of early adolescents as they seek guidance from those within and
beyond their families is a special guide or advocate. Such roles are critical in a child’s
developmental journey. Every adult connected to STmS will serve in some form as an advocate,
coach, mentor, and advisor. Each student has at least one person who assumes a special
responsibility for supporting his or her academic and personal development. Such people enjoy
working with them, are knowledgeable about them, and quickly get to know them as
individuals. Not to be confused with the role of the counselor, they listen to and guide their
students through the challenges of the journey.
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The advisory program: An advisory program offers regular meeting times to enable students to
develop respect for themselves and for others. Here their values are honed, interpersonal skills
are developed, study skills are enhanced, decision-making and goal-setting are modeled.
Advisors receive ongoing professional development to support fulfilling such roles.
The Middle School environment is inviting, warm, safe, and supportive of all.
Positive community: STmS provides a joyful, engaging community that promotes in-depth
learning and supports the growth of students’ physical and emotional well-being. Cultivating
positive relationships within the community is critical. Teachers, staff, and students learn and
put into practice the skills of direct feedback, mediation, healthy and appropriate problemsolving skills, positive risk taking, and personal and collaborative goal-setting. Differences are
respected and celebrated, and the ability to respect and value the diverse ways people look,
speak, think, and act across the world is cultivated. Carefully planned Chapel, homeroom,
advisory, and class meeting spaces nurture such an atmosphere. Students acting as mentors to
each other and working with other students throughout the school creates a community of
strong bonds, and gives Middle School students leadership opportunities and earned respect in
the wider community.
Positive discipline: Social competency and psychological safety are ensured also by
maintaining an environment in which peaceful, positive, and safe interactions are expected.
STS has high expectations of its students. Students have clear behavioral expectations, and high
standards are modeled by teachers. A climate of positive discipline pervades the classrooms,
with students learning in an atmosphere of respect and concern for the welfare of others. There
is an emphasis on developing an ethical decision-making ability as our students internalize
their value systems. A strong sense of community is developed by helping students learn how
to manage anger, resolve conflicts peacefully, and participate as active social leaders in creating
a positive climate for all. Peer mediation and conflict resolution skills are actively taught.
These expectations are reinforced by the Chapel program which allows students to develop an
inner moral landscape based on the ability to evaluate their own thinking and behavior and that
of others.
STmS establishes a model of positive, democratic citizenship and social leadership, and
cultivates a personal framework for understanding themselves and their world.
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As students move beyond their immediate family systems, and as they become more engaged
with the wider world, a strong, defined sense of citizenship and purpose is a critical component
of education in today’s world. Such citizenship is founded upon core values as well as
students’ capacity to reflect upon their own lives and those of others, thereby creating a
personal, meaningful framework for understanding their role in the world. STS is committed to
creating an ethic of citizenship that is imbued with responsibilities at all layers. Such an ethic is
not merely founded on clear rules but also by being active in establishing and upholding a
warm, respectful environment and participating in team, group, class, and community
processes, events, and experiences. Citizenship is a key component of service learning projects
that cultivate the passion to commit to a lifetime of service to others and to the stewardship of
the earth and its resources.
A series of tools for reflection allows each student to understand himself or herself in greater
depth and establishes a personal framework for understanding self and the world. A
developed set of interpersonal and social skills is cultivated in order to work, team, and play
with others. Understanding that true leadership is service to others, to the environment, and to
the world, students will need a knowledge of the role leadership and service and the ability to
set, plan for, and carry out goals. Our students are expected to possess a clear ability to make
responsible, ethical decisions and demonstrate an active concern for the welfare of others. Each
builds a reflective understanding of his or her individual strengths, skills, talents, and interests
and an emerging grasp of how these contribute to society and to personal fulfillment. As
succinctly put by Dr. Jerome Bruner: “The balance between individuality and group
effectiveness gets worked out within the culture of the group; so too the balancing of ethnic or
racial identities and the sense of the larger community of which they are a part.”
Our students will develop an idea of active, ethical citizenship founded upon understanding
local, national, and global responsibilities. This understanding includes an awareness how the
religions and ideologies of the world in the past and present motivate human behavior. As our
students use technological tools to explore, communicate, and collaborate with the world, this is
accompanied by a powerful ethic of global citizenship. Opportunities to experience different
types of decision-making is explicitly modeled as students develop a grasp of democratic
processes by being part of service learning planning teams, participating in student council, and
by being active participants in advisory and class meeting sessions. Our students are
challenged through discussion, debate, observation, and reflection provoked by meaningful
ideas and challenging experiences to develop their own internal frameworks for understanding
themselves and their world as part of their own unique spiritual journeys.
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CLIMATE FOR LEARNING
The STmS faculty value early adolescence and are prepared to teach students of this age.
Our teachers are passionate about serving children of this age and serve as their advocates.
Continuous professional development is offered as faculty members team together to reflect
upon classroom practice and the structures of the STmS community in the light of emerging
developmental and curricular research. Our teachers are sensitive to individual differences and
varied learning styles and act as role-models, modeling inclusive, democratic, and teamoriented approaches to learning. They provide ongoing leadership in ongoing efforts to
improve STmS program’s effectiveness.
Students and teachers are engaged upon a journey of active, purposeful, engaging learning.
Students at STS are on a critical journey through their years, and learning informs important
stages of that journey. Essential to instilling in the young adolescent a passion for learning is
the active engagement of students and teachers in all areas of school life from the curriculum to
student life. Activating the personal interest of each student in ongoing learning is
fundamental. The STmS program develops in each student a sense of empowerment and the
ability to act as a self-advocate through the carefully crafted teacher-student partnership.
Student ownership of responsibilities and ethical behavior alongside the offering of leadership
opportunities develops in each a sense of purpose and meaning. Within a rigorous program
with clear, high standards, moments for differentiated instruction and authentic assessment
allow students to express their needs and preferences, to pursue their individual and collective
interests, and to reflect upon their learning in a meaningful way. Students have the technology
to communicate with others, access to rich subject content, write for authentic audiences, and
collaborate with each other and connect with communities across the world.
Continuous professional development reflects best educational practices.
The distinct features of this stage of childhood require that passionate teachers thrive on
professional development. Data is collected about the school’s programs from such sources as
standardized testing, from the teachers, and from receiving high schools to add to the reflective
process that supports student growth and personal development. This occurs in a climate of
professional development taking place over longer stretches of time, in collaboration with
others within the school and with the wider community, with a willingness to assess the
effectiveness of professional development initiatives. Teachers form learning communities to
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discuss professional readings, student data and work, and instructional and assessment
strategies. Local and national conferences, teacher mentors, workshops, university courses, and
visitations to other schools and model programs all play an important role in the school’s
commitment to continual growth.
Key guidance and support services seek to meet the needs of Middle School students within the
school or to connect families to the larger community setting.
In today’s world young adolescents are faced with many challenges, some wrought by their
evolving hormonal and neurological structures, many others coming from society around them.
To support each child academically and socially, the Child Study process exists to help identify
particular challenges of individual students. It brings teams of relevant teachers and staff
together, in partnership with parents, to offer support within the STS program. When a student
or family needs help beyond the immediate school environment, families will be referred to
specialized services.
A counselor is available to offer support to students, parents, and teachers. This role helps
supervise the advisory system and informs the Child Study process. The counselor supports
relevant portions of parent education and helps students develop peer mediation and conflict
resolution strategies. Peer support groups are examples of supporting structures the counselor
can create. The school counselor helps refer to support services needed by families.
ST. THOMAS MIDDLE SCHOOL OUTCOMES
Our goal is to prepare our students to be ready for the adventure of life armed with a selfconfidence, a sense of autonomy, the ability to think critically and creatively, and with the core
values that give life depth and purpose. The STS journey allows each graduating student to set
forth with the following:
1. A developed awareness of the larger world and its current challenges, asking significant
and relevant questions about that world, and wrestling with its important questions
2. A sophisticated, advanced grasp of all academic content areas as well as supporting
subject area skills based upon a rigorous, challenging, enriching curriculum
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3. The ability to think rationally, critically, and creatively and test out and express these
thoughts in writing and speaking, through the arts and music, through the science and
technology
4. The ability to think like a mathematician, a scientist, an artist, a historian, a geographer,
and a writer
5. The ability to read and think deeply to gather, evaluate and interpret information from a
variety of sources and read avidly in the quest for life-long learning
6. The confidence to speak and present one’s self articulately with poise and engagement
7. A reflective understanding of one’s individual strengths, skills, talents, and interests as
well as an emerging grasp of how these contribute to society and to personal fulfillment
8. An understanding of personal strengths balanced by a developed sense of the needs of
the group or community within which one lives and functions and an appreciation of
the value of those individuals whose talents, skills, background, and values may differ
significantly from one’s own
9. A clear ability to make responsible, ethical decisions and an active concern for the
welfare of others
10. A knowledge of the role of leadership and service and the ability to set, plan for, and
carry out goals
11. A developed set of interpersonal and social skills needed in order to work, team, and
play with others
12. A series of tools for reflection that allows each student to understand himself or herself
in greater depth and that establish a personal framework for understanding oneself and
the world
13. An understanding of how to lead a healthy, active life that supports his or her own
health and wellness needs
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14. The technological tools to explore, communicate, and collaborate with the world imbued
with a powerful ethic of global citizenship
15. The passion to commit to a lifetime of service to others and to the stewardship of the
earth and its resources
16. The ability to respect and value the diverse ways people look, speak, think, and act
across the world
17. An understanding of the world of music and the arts, and a recognition of their
importance to one’s own learning and development and that of a civilized society
18. An understanding of the essential ideas and use of the critical tools in the areas of health
and physical education, language arts, mathematics, science, and the social sciences
19. An advanced understanding of a foreign language to enhance the sense of global
citizenship as well as developing a familiarity with the roots of language and culture
(Latin) and the diversity of expressive language and culture through familiarity with
another modern language (Spanish)
20. An awareness of the past and present religions and ideologies of the world that have
motivated human behavior
21. A notion of citizenship founded upon understanding local, national, and global
responsibilities
22. An awareness of different types of careers and opportunities available in the world with
a readiness to explore these as they prepare for the next steps of their journey
23. A sense of life as an adventure with challenges, joys, and accomplishments
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Bruner, Jerome. The Culture of Education, Harvard University Press, 1996. Print.
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Erb, Thomas Owen. This We Believe in Action: Implementing Successful Middle Level Schools.
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Foundations of St. Thomas Middle School
Published: 2010