English: The Great Ideas of Humankind
The English curriculum prepares students to be citizens of the world and masters of themselves. The curriculum emphasises reading comprehension, creative and informative writing, oral presentations, and research assignments, all of which combine in the art of critical thinking, logic and argument.
Throughout classes 9 to 12, the teachers use traditional forms of literature—novels (classics to modern world literature), poetry, drama, literary criticism, editorials, and essays—as original source material in order to encourage the students to understand the gifts of language and its relationship to what it means to be a human being.
The study of literature in Class 9 enables students to cover reading comprehension, vocabulary building, historical context, the use of language, and the important themes of the books, especially as these are expressed in terms of polarities, sympathies and antipathies. Appealing directly to this stage of development, students study the themes of comedy and tragedy in drama through the ages. Some of the ideas encountered in their studies are: love and sacrifice, freedom, responsibility and social issues.
Class 10 students expand on these skills as well as on the development of the literary essay, with special attention to the use of comparison and contrast. The history of language from myth to literature, and the evolution of poetic form are studied. Students delve into the process of how our literary culture has come to be through study of the great classics of the Western canon.
In Class 11, the concentration is on analytical thinking in relation particularly to the literature of the Middle Ages as exemplified by the two great pillars: Dante’s Inferno and the medieval epic Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach. These classics provide for an exploration of the evolution of consciousness, from which the students can discuss life issues and deep inner questions of destiny and the self: from the war of the sexes to questions about God and personal growth. Hamlet is given special attention, as an example of an exploration of human existence and identity within society. Students also study the great works of the 19th Century Romantics poets and thinkers which embody the social, political, artistic and philosophical movement of the period.
Class 12 focuses on synthesis and working from different points of view, with prominence placed on the extended essay as a literary form. A study of Goethe’s drama for humanity, Faust is taken up, allowing themes of study to arise such as questions of morality, ethical imitations, freedom, responsibility, egoism, guilt and the human being’s search for knowledge. A survey is undertaken of modern world literature. Several great works by authors are presented including Melville, Joyce, Kafka, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
Throughout classes 9 to 12, the teachers use traditional forms of literature—novels (classics to modern world literature), poetry, drama, literary criticism, editorials, and essays—as original source material in order to encourage the students to understand the gifts of language and its relationship to what it means to be a human being.
The study of literature in Class 9 enables students to cover reading comprehension, vocabulary building, historical context, the use of language, and the important themes of the books, especially as these are expressed in terms of polarities, sympathies and antipathies. Appealing directly to this stage of development, students study the themes of comedy and tragedy in drama through the ages. Some of the ideas encountered in their studies are: love and sacrifice, freedom, responsibility and social issues.
Class 10 students expand on these skills as well as on the development of the literary essay, with special attention to the use of comparison and contrast. The history of language from myth to literature, and the evolution of poetic form are studied. Students delve into the process of how our literary culture has come to be through study of the great classics of the Western canon.
In Class 11, the concentration is on analytical thinking in relation particularly to the literature of the Middle Ages as exemplified by the two great pillars: Dante’s Inferno and the medieval epic Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach. These classics provide for an exploration of the evolution of consciousness, from which the students can discuss life issues and deep inner questions of destiny and the self: from the war of the sexes to questions about God and personal growth. Hamlet is given special attention, as an example of an exploration of human existence and identity within society. Students also study the great works of the 19th Century Romantics poets and thinkers which embody the social, political, artistic and philosophical movement of the period.
Class 12 focuses on synthesis and working from different points of view, with prominence placed on the extended essay as a literary form. A study of Goethe’s drama for humanity, Faust is taken up, allowing themes of study to arise such as questions of morality, ethical imitations, freedom, responsibility, egoism, guilt and the human being’s search for knowledge. A survey is undertaken of modern world literature. Several great works by authors are presented including Melville, Joyce, Kafka, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
