The Search for Indentity
Cultures and Communities
When Belmont Day School faculty began planning the new seventh and eighth grade
curriculum, they were determined that this program would not be a mini high school
with compartmentalized subjects and disconnected assignments. Instead, they were
intent on designing a meaningful, integrated curriculum with creative and challenging
projects and experiences. They have definitely succeeded in their goals!
The seventh and eighth grade program features
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in-depth study of a self-selected research topic
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a strong advisor-advisee program
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community building and community service
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major dramatic productions
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opportunities to work with younger students
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interscholastic team sports
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many varied arts electives
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In seventh grade students explore the question of what it means to be a human being.
Where do our ideas come from? What does it mean to belong to a culture? How do human
beings adapt to the many different environments in the world? How does geography
influence the development of a culture, of a nationality? How do religious beliefs
emerge within different cultures?
Cultures in Conflict
In eighth grade, students build on their understandings of various cultures and study
the history of significant cultural conflicts across the globe. What are the issues
that bring communities to the point of war? What were the key turning points that
preceded particular conflicts? How might these have been handled differently?
Eighth graders learn algebra and study introductory chemistry in our state-of-the-art
laboratory. Each week students do the work of scientists: measuring, documenting,
generating hypotheses, contemplating results.
Both seventh and eighth graders gather in literature study groups three times a
week. There, in groups of ten, students probe fiction, short stories, poetry,
and Shakespearean plays to analyze themes, metaphors, and symbolism.
Rounding out their daily experiences is time in the kiva for discussion, planning,
and—most important to middle schoolers—hanging out.
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