High School

In the Rhetoric stage (grades 9-12), children are more vocal and expressive. Through formal rhetoric, debate and drama, students are taught to speak and write persuasively in addition to their ‘regular’ courses of study.

In the words of Dorothy Sayers,

The Poetic age is popularly known as the "difficult" age. It is self-centered; it yearns to express itself; it rather specializes in being misunderstood; it is restless and tries to achieve independence; and, with good luck and good guidance, it should show the beginnings of creativeness; a reaching out towards a synthesis of what it already knows, and a deliberate eagerness to know and do some one thing in preference to all others. Now it seems to me that the layout of the Trivium adapts itself with a singular appropriateness to these three ages: Grammar to the Poll-Parrot, Dialectic to the Pert, and Rhetoric to the Poetic age.

In addition, Miss Sayers noted,

The imagination-- usually dormant during the Pert age--will reawaken, and prompt them to suspect the limitations of logic and reason. This means that they are passing into the Poetic age and are ready to embark on the study of Rhetoric. The doors of the storehouse of knowledge should now be thrown open for them to browse about as they will. The things once learned by rote will be seen in new contexts; the things once coldly analyzed can now be brought together to form a new synthesis; here and there a sudden insight will bring about that most exciting of all discoveries: the realization that truism is true.

Our rhetoric curriculum continues the rigorous Saxon math until Calculus. History and Literature are coordinated in the Omnibus tradition. The theology component focuses more on particular courses. In addition, formal rhetoric begins with an emphasis upon speaking properly and culminates in the drama course. Part of the theology curriculum that is the capstone for the rhetoric stage is Apologetics (1 & 2), in which students are taught not only how to defend the Christian worldview, but also to persuasively speak with others about their own personal views.

Grade 10 11 12
Science Exploring Creation with Chemistry Exploring Creation with Physics Senior Thesis
Math Trigonometry Calculus I & II
Omnibus Western Civilization US History & Constitution Civics (Government / Economics)
Classical and World Literature American Literature British Literature
Applied Theology Courtship and Marriage Apologetics I Apologetics II
Rhetoric Rhetoric I Rhetoric II Rhetoric III (Drama)
Addenda Greek II PE/ Health SC History

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