A CLOSER LOOK FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS AND PARENTS/GUARDIANS INSIDE Pillars of AcademicsBeyondEnglishExperienceBurroughstheCurriculumMathematicsCurriculumHistoryCurriculumScienceCurriculumLanguageCurriculum104286
Nearly 100 years ago, Burroughs was established by a group of parents who wanted a coeducational, nonsectarian, college preparatory school. They believed in simplicity, service, concern for nature, democracy, individuality and the highest academic standards. These basic tenets remain front and center of a Burroughs education. We are proud of our values and traditions. We are proud of a school community that is intentionally diverse and inclusive because we believe that a range of experiences, perspectives and backgrounds enriches learning for all students and begins to prepare them for a global society. We are proud of the mutual respect between students and faculty. They get to know each other well, and the friendships made at Burroughs are lifelong. We are proud of a work ethic that helps students grow into self-reliant young adults. From the outset, students begin to assume responsibility for their own success, and as they mature, they gain increasing independence. The resulting initiative and self-confidence are demonstrated in many ways inside and beyond the Weclassroom.wantour students to be active in the classroom — with their heads up, eyes open and minds engaged. In classes, which are generally run seminar style, students learn to be discerning readers, critical thinkers, articulate communicators and analytical problem solvers. The atmosphere on our campus is informal, because in our experience when students are comfortable in their environment, they are in a better mindset for learning and they put their energies to best use. We provide a broad education through a scaffolding of knowledge and skill building across six pillars: the Humanities; STEM; the Arts; Athletics, Health & Wellness; Global Awareness & Cultural Competency; and Service & Sustainability. After meeting graduation requirements, students take deeper dives into opportunities of their choice and engage in an array of on-the-ground applications, from clubs to conferences to travel. We do not have a predetermined idea of who we want our students to be. Instead, we hope students will choose their own trajectories. Everyone takes introductory courses in art, music, theatre, math, science, engineering and computing. Everyone sews a pillow, throws a pot, learns the quadratic formula, shoots a free throw — with varying levels of success. With this broad base (and the insight gained from it), older students can further explore their interests through higher-level courses, travel/exchange programs, competitive athletics, outdoor education adventures, clubs and more. We hope our students graduate with a foundation of understanding to support advanced study, the confidence to branch out even further and the values to be responsible and engaged members of their communities. These values are the underpinning of an education that brings the liberal arts model to secondary education. We have attempted to visually present the six pillars of a Burroughs education on pages 2 and 3 of this publication, and then we focus in more detail on our academic curriculum. Please turn the page to get a sense of some of the opportunities available to our students. Head of School Andy Abbott
— ANDY ABBOTT
At the Core of a Burroughs Education
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THE ARTS
Every student takes courses in industrial technology/engineering in grades 7 and 8. Every student takes Basic Foods in grade 7 and Basic Sewing in grade 8.
DEEPER DIVES: Older students may take Project Technology, Architectural Drawing, Computer Video Editing & Special Effects, Computer-Aided Drafting, and High-Tech Tooling.
DEEPER DIVES: Older students may take AfricanAmerican Studies, U.S. History Since 1945, Global Modern Feminism, Literature & History, Bioethics (an interdisciplinary science and history course) and Urban Issues & Design. Languages Every student takes Spanish, French, German or Latin in grades 7 and 8. Upper school students must complete at least through level II of a single language (essentially three years). Most students complete level IV, and many complete level V as well.
Practical Arts
SIX PILLARS OF THE STEM
Every student takes Technology Literacy in grade 7 and Introduction to Coding in grade 8.
Every student takes two-dimensional and threedimensional art classes (grades 7 and 8). Exhibits of fine art in the Bonsack and Kuehner galleries, as well as other locations on campus, and the school’s fine art collection expose all students to a range of styles. Student work is also displayed on campus.
Every student takes Speech (grade 7), Debate (grade 8) and Acting (grade 8).
CLUBS/ACTIVITIES: Chemistry Club, Anatomy Club, Environmental Awareness Club, Maker Space Club, Robotics Club, Super Mileage Vehicle Club, Science Olympiad, Middle School Math Club, BioMedical Science Club, Computer Science Club, Computer Science Education Week, Practical Arts Festival, MATHCOUNTS, American Mathematics Contest, Excellence in Mathematics competition
Every student takes Basic Technical Design & Engineering in grade 7 and Industrial Technology/ Engineering in grade 8.
DEEPER DIVES: Seniors may take an English IV Honors Seminar. Topics offered during the 2020–21 school year range from Asian-American Literature to Critical Theory to a Creative Writing Workshop to a study of the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks and Robert Frost.
2 | A CLOSER LOOK
A strong program in the liberal arts teaches students how to think critically, conduct effective research, analyze texts, and write and speak persuasively while exploring the diversity of the human experience of the past and present.
DEEPER DIVES: Older students may take Programming in Java, Programming for the Web, Mobile App Development and AP Computer Science. Science Every student takes Principles of Life Science and Earth Science in grade 7 and Principles of Chemistry and Physics in grade 8. Virtually every upper school student takes Biology, Chemistry and Physics. DEEPER DIVES: Older students may take Behavioral Neuroscience, AP Physics 2, Bioethics, AP Biology, Carbon Chemistry, AP Chemistry and AP Environmental Science.
DEEPER DIVES: Older students may take Economics, Statistics & Data Analysis, and AP Calculus.
English
In a rigorous STEM curriculum, students learn creative problem solving, critical thinking, data-driven decision making and collaboration skills that will prepare them for active participation in a world with ever-changing challenges.
Required courses in the fine, performing and practical arts provide a structured introduction to the techniques, methods and concepts common to the creative disciplines. In the process of creating art, students gain an understanding and appreciation of the arts while building a foundation for more advanced study.
DEEPER DIVES: Older students may take higherlevel Painting & Drawing, Sculpture, Printmaking, Ceramics, Photography I and II, Independent Study and The History of Classical Art. Multimedia intensive studies and honors courses are available as well. Music Every student takes chorus, band or orchestra in grades 7 and 8.
DEEPER DIVES: In addition to advanced courses in debate and acting, older students may take Public Speaking, Improvisation, Theatre Production, Playwriting, The Great American Musical, Instructional Dance and Performance Dance.
Owning What They Learn
DEEPER DIVES: Older students may take Food Explorations, Sewing, Architectural Drawing, Computer Video Editing & Special Effects, Digital Audio Technology, Project Technology and Independent Study courses.
Mathematics
Engineering
Fine Arts
PRESENTATIONS: STEM Speaker Series
DEEPER DIVES: Older students may take JBS Voices, Men’s A Cappella, Jazz Band, Orchestra, Music History and Songwriting.
Computer Science
STUDENT TRAVEL: Greece trip; Italy trip; Spain trip; Guatemala service trip; German exchange; France trip; Washington, D.C., trip; The Hague International Model United Nations (the Netherlands and Qatar)
Theatre, Speech & Debate
Owning What They Learn
CLUBS/ACTIVITIES: Grades 7 and 8 play, fall play (grades 9-12), musical (grades 9-12), spring play (grades 9-12), Holiday Program/Tableau, Light and Sound Crew, Dance Show, music assemblies, The Review Review Preview, Works in Progress, Commons Cafe, Intensive Studies Student Show, Practical Arts Festival, Schoolwide Debate
Every student takes Math 7, Algebra I and II, Geometry and Precalculus. Most students take Calculus.
History
DEEPER DIVES: Older students may take Beginning and Continuing Russian, Beginning and Continuing Chinese, Greek (through level II), The History of Classical Art, and Foundations of Western Literature. Owning What They Learn CLUBS/ACTIVITIES: Classics Club, Hispanic Culture Club, French Culture Club, Asian Culture Club, Poetry Club, The Review, Review Preview, Works in Progress The World, Stubborn Ounces, Model UN, Current Events Initiative, Scholar Bowl, Scholastic Writing Award Program, National Shakespeare Competition (sponsored by the English-Speaking Union), Poetry Out Loud, World Religions Club
HUMANITIES
Every student takes Geography and Global Issues (grade 7), Social Studies/U.S. Government (grade 8), World Civilizations I and/or II (grades 9 and 10) and U.S. History (grade 11).
PRESENTATIONS: Gentry Lecture Series
Every student takes English every year, including explorations of various genres (grade 9), British Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature (grade 10), American Literature (grade 11), and Classic & Contemporary Literature (grade 12).
Every student takes a double-period physical education class four days a week in grades 7 and 8. Upper school students are required to participate in team sports, fitness classes, an independent athletic activity and/or outdoor education.
Every student participates in a grade 7 service project, a grade 8 community service week and a senior May Project with a service component. Every student participates in Bio Drey Land, which includes studies of forest and stream ecosystems.
Health & Wellness
Serving others is a deeply held value that is woven into our curriculum and extracurricular activities on many levels. For example, Student Congress organizes a dance marathon to raise money for a charity of its choice; Montgomery Plan collects household items for the families of foster children; and THIMUN participants collect used computers for model UN participants from leastdeveloped countries. These are just a few of many service Likewise,opportunities.sustainability has been a core value since the school’s founding. From discussions about multimodal transportation in the Urban Issues & Design course to the study of forest and stream ecosystems at Bio Drey Land to composting kitchen waste to the school’s commitment to LEED certification in new building projects, this value is infused in the curriculum, student activities and how the school builds and takes care of its campus.
&ATHLETICS,HEALTHWELLNESS
Owning What They Learn
Physical Education/Athletics
STUDENT TRAVEL: Spring-break sports training camps
CLUBS/ACTIVITIES: Asian Culture Club, Diversity ETC, French Culture Club, Gender Equity Organization, Current Events Club, Global Assistance Project, Global Youth Leadership Institute, International Club, Jewish Culture Club, KIVA (a microloan program for low-income entrepreneurs in more than 80 countries), Middle School Diversity Club, Model UN 7 and 8, St. Louis Model United Nations, MUN Partner Impact Club, Hispanic Culture Club, Spectrum, The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN), R.I.S.E., World Religions Club, UNICEF Club, Current Events Initiative, Stubborn Ounces, International Week, Affinity Groups
CLUBS/ACTIVITIES: Dance Squad, Sixth Man Club, Sports for Charity, Dance Show, Outdoor Education, Kids Under Twenty One (a peer counseling crisis helpline), Summer Fitness Training and Sports Camps
Languages
DEEPER DIVES: Upper school students may also take Gardening, Urban Issues & Design, and AP Environmental Science.
The athletics, health and wellness program is based on the premise that participation in some form of competitive activity, as well as knowledge about the proper care and treatment of the individual’s body and mind, are essential to every person’s well-being.
DEEPER DIVES: Older students may take AfricanAmerican Studies and Global Modern Feminism.
Courses/Projects
CLUBS/ACTIVITIES: Environmental Awareness Club, Montgomery Plan (our umbrella service club), KIVA (a microloan program for low-income entrepreneurs in more than 80 countries), Kids Under Twenty One (a peer counseling crisis helpline), Extra Hands for ALS, Global Assistance Project, Sports for Charity, UNICEF Club, Super Mileage Vehicle Club, Outdoor Education/Service Trips, Animal Allies, American Patriot Organization, Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, Summer Days, Aim High
STUDENT TRAVEL: Montgomery Plan service trip, Guatemala service trip, Global Youth Leadership Institute
Owning What They Learn
DEEPER DIVES: Students in grades 7 and 8 may participate in extracurricular team sports including basketball, cross country, field hockey, football and Uppertennis.
Every student takes Geography and Global Issues (grade 7) and World Civilizations I and/or II (grades 9 and 10).
BURROUGHS EXPERIENCE
Owning What They Learn
school students may participate on competitive teams tailored to a range of skill levels: baseball, basketball, cheerleading, cross country, field hockey, football, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, squash, swimming/diving, tennis, track and field, wrestling, volleyball and water polo teams and the dance program. Students may choose outdoor education or an independent activity to fulfill the PE/Athletics requirement for one season’s sport.
History
PROGRAMS: Exchange program
Every student takes a seminar course in grades 7 and 8, which includes units focused on health and wellness, and all ninth graders take a yearlong course focused on those topics. A required cooking course (grade 7) supports this goal with discussions of food choices, food preparation and nutrition.
STUDENT TRAVEL: Global Youth Leadership Institute, The Hague International Model United Nations (the Netherlands and Qatar), France trip, Greece trip, Italy trip, Spain trip, Guatemala service trip, German exchange program
Every student takes Spanish, French, German or Latin in grades 7 and 8. Upper school students must complete at least through level II of a single language (essentially three years). Most students complete level IV, and many complete level V as well. DEEPER DIVES: Older students may take Beginning and Continuing Russian, Beginning and Continuing Chinese, and Greek (through level II).
SERVICE SUSTAINABILITY&
An experience that values cultural competency and global awareness is essential to a young person’s ability to navigate an increasingly complex and interconnected world. These skills are woven into the Burroughs experience on many levels — from the diverse composition of the student body to the guest speakers who visit assembly to discussions of cultural expectations in language classes. Seminars
Every student takes required seminars in grades 7, 8 and 10 that address issues of cultural competency and global awareness.
COMPETENCY&AWARENESSGLOBALCULTURAL
John Burroughs School | 3
Students develop skills as capable and joyous readers and writers through lots of practice over a six-year English curriculum.
After graduating from Burroughs, Smiley earned a bachelor’s degree from Vassar and then master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Iowa, where she also taught from 1981 to 1996. She published her first book, Barn Blind, in 1980, but it was for her best-selling A Thousand Acres, a modernday retelling of William Shakespeare’s King Lear, that she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992.
But as I thank you for this alumni award, I thank you also for too many memories to count, all of them either good or funny or enlightening.”
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
“Some students may not know that they like writing poems until they try their hand at different types of poems,” continues DesPrez. “Other students may not know that they have a good ear for dialogue until they try to write dialogue in a short story or a script. When we ask students to work in a range of genres, we are asking them to stretch in new ways. We hope that in the process they widen their appreciation for the different sorts of works that they read.”
Grade-level committees meet regularly to review required texts and share strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures. They talk about reasonable expectations for homework and for papers. “We’re supporting each other, and we’re creating coherence for our students,” says Gebhardt. Teachers strive for consistency within the department, and they coordinate with other disciplines when possible, such as when sophomores study World War I poetry at the same time they study that period in history.
Smiley is the author of other works of fiction, including At Paradise Gate (1981), Duplicate Keys (1984), The Age of Grief (1987), The Greenlanders (1988), Ordinary Love and Good Will (1989), Moo (1995), The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton (1998), Horse Heaven (2001), Good Faith (2003), Ten Days in the Hills (2007), Private Life (2010), Some Luck (2014), Early Warning (2015), Golden Age (2015) and Perestroika in Paris (2020). Her essays have appeared in such magazines as Vogue, The New Yorker, Harper’s and The New York Times Magazine
The ability to write comes from actually writing, and students get much practice. “Every year, they read literature, they analyze literature both in discussion and in their own writing, and they gain writing experience in a variety of literary genres,” says faculty member Dr. Ellie DesPrez. They receive much feedback in the process, and they turn in a polished piece every four to six weeks. Students write regularly, both formally and informally.
In addition to the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Smiley has received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Midland Authors Award, a Friends of American Writers Prize and two O. Henry Awards. In 2001, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dr. Jane Smiley was named the JBS Alumni Association’s Outstanding Alum in 2017.
4 | A CLOSER LOOK ENGLISH Read, Write ... Repeat
Some aspects of the English curriculum have changed over the years. Required texts have come and gone; rubrics have been refined; and the needs of the next generation have evolved. But what remains as immutable as the laws of physics is the overarching goal of the English curriculum: that Burroughs graduates, having spent more than 750 class periods in English classes over the course of six years, know how to read closely and produce a thoughtful, well-organized and well-written work.
As students explore different genres, teachers who are themselves voracious readers and practicing writers are closely involved through one-on-one writing conferences. “You can’t fake enthusiasm and get away with it for long,” says DesPrez. “We are a team of true creative-writing enthusiasts. A few of us are published; all of us are practitioners. We are poets and fiction writers and essayists and playwrights. We ourselves take joy in continuing to learn and grow as writers.”
During her talk at a morning assembly presentation of the alum award, Smiley shared some thoughts about being a Burroughs student in the ’60s. She talked about her teachers, the books she read in English classes, the campus and her classmates, 69 of them. “Sixty-nine students is just the right number to keep an eye on, to learn from, to distinguish between,” she said. “Sixty-nine unique individuals to contemplate.” “I was an oddball,” continued Smiley. “Because I was out of it, I knew I had to keep my eyes open and observe — the teachers, of course, but especially my fellow students, many of whom were well-dressed, adept, sociable, well-spoken and smart. So I got into the habit, one that has served me well as a writer, of watching, eavesdropping and noting interesting “Aminteractions.Isaying that Burroughs made me? There were other influences, too — horses, my talkative and funny family, St. Louis County, being a baby boomer.
— JANE
The complexity of their writing assignments grows through the years as they become more complex thinkers and encounter more demanding texts. For example, assignments might involve • seventh graders writing personal credos during their “This I Believe” unit and compiling personal poetry portfolios, • eighth graders crafting a book jacket, complete with a bio and back-cover blurb, for an imaginary biography in response to John Lewis’ graphic memoir March • freshmen conducting and transcribing interviews with family members about expectations surrounding romantic love and courtship in response to Romeo and Juliet, • sophomores writing a memoir in response to Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, • juniors emulating Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home by creating a graphic memoir or creating a blog in response to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah and • seniors imitating Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell and Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do by conducting interviews and synthesizing the information into a creative piece about identity and society.
CULTURAL COMPETENCY AND GLOBAL AWARENESS
In addition to giving students practice in reading and writing a range of genres, the English Department seeks to give students a broader sense of who they are and who they might become as “Wewriters.commit to perennial evolution of the curriculum where we hope our texts reflect the identities in our community and balance contemporary and historical voices,” says English Department chair Joy Gebhardt. “We enthusiastically commit to revising our list of texts every year in order to represent different voices. We are never satisfied because, like cultural competency work, the work is never done; new, beautiful voices emerge every year.”
“I think it is true for all writers that what you read and learn when you are 12, 13 and 14 is what shapes your future work — how you approach it, what you think is worth doing, what you yourself like to read.” SMILEY SMILEY
AUTHOR JANE
’67
“Ultimately, we want our students to grow their capacity to imagine themselves into the experience of another through careful reading — not just reading about people with whom they might readily identify, but also about people with whom they at first might not feel they have much in common. That sort of reading, which is closely akin to careful listening, requires both attention and open-mindedness. We think students become better thinkers and writers by paying that sort of rigorous attention. We also think that sort of attention, that sort of reading and listening, has the capacity to make a person a better, more civil member of a diverse community and a complex world.”
The English Curriculum
The curriculum remains relevant because teachers review it regularly. For example, in recent work at the grade 11 level, teachers took a close look at the voices represented in readings to identify gaps. “Three new texts — Americanah, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao — attempt to fill those gaps,” says Dr. Shannon Koropchak, who leads the grade 11 committee. “In particular, we realized that we had few texts published later than 1990. Now we have three texts published after 2000. The intent is to make the course more agile and connected to the issues that are relevant to our students. This doesn’t mean leaving all classics at the door, though. The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby and poetry by Langston Hughes absolutely passed our tests of being historically important, relevant to current social issues and stylistically rich.”
John Burroughs School | 5 ENGLISH GRADE 9 Romeo and Juliet* The House on Mango TheStreet*Catcher in the Rye* Life of Pi Lord of the Flies The Nickel Boys Lost in Yonkers GRADE 12 Song of Solomon* Into the Wild* The Best We Could Do* SalvageExitHamlet*Westthe Bones Visiting Poet Unit Student UnitCurriculumChoice:Review GRADE 8 March, Book One* To Kill a Mockingbird* Julius Caesar* The Secret Life of Bees Private Peaceful Selected short stories and poetry GRADE 7 A Midsummer Night’s AnimalDream* Farm* Little Worlds* (short story anthology) How to Eat a Poem* A Raisin in the Sun* The Refugee*Outsiders* GRADE 11 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Their Eyes Were Watching God The Scarlet Letter* The Great Gatsby* Fun Home: A Family BelovedAmericanahDeathTragicomic*ofaSalesman GRADE 10 The FrankensteinPygmalionTempest
“As student readers and writers mature, they should develop their own unique voices and be able to think about the audiences for whom they are writing and the impact that specific words and other choices will have on those audiences,” says DesPrez.
*The books listed below were included in the 2020-21 curriculum. An asterisk indicates that all English teachers incorporated the book or the unit in their classes. Teachers independently select other books for class discussion, some of which are also listed.
CaribbeanAnglophoneContemporarypoets
World War I poetry* Things Fall Apart Born a Crime Purple Hibiscus
“Routine calculations and procedures can be performed by machines,” she continues. “If that’s all there was to mathematics, then it would be less critical for every truly educated citizen. But the mathematical habits of mind and practices that derive from making sense of procedures, understanding what is behind them, mastering the techniques, becoming efficient with them, developing automaticity for the most important ones — all of this frees a student to engage more deeply in problem solving and mathematical modeling.”
MATHEMATICS 6 | A CLOSER LOOK Sum and Substance Starting on day one of seventh grade, the Burroughs math curriculum teaches students to dig in, to wonder, to explore, to conjecture and to prove.
“It is one of the most awesome parts of teaching seventh grade,” she says. “The students sometimes act like they’ve discovered some kind of giant conspiracy hiding in plain sight. I regularly feel like I’m pulling back the curtain to reveal the man behind the magic, and it turns out that that guy is actually composed of solid mathematical reasoning, not tricks and procedures to just memorize.”
The Burroughs math curriculum focuses on justification and proof and how math applies to real-life situations.
“This is where we often explore why the procedures they have learned work and provide a substantial amount of justification,” says Crowley.
THE MATH SEQUENCE In grades 8 through 12, the Math Department has transitioned to a curriculum that duplicates the seventhgrade model and the model used by the Science Department. All students at all levels take the same courses, with regular-paced and accelerated options offered in each grade.
“Wondering why something works the way it does, exploring and tinkering and conjecturing until you have an idea — these are the tasks of mathematicians. But a mathematician is only truly satisfied when she has satisfactorily proved her conjectures. And the community of mathematicians is demanding in its expectation for crisp, convincing, coherent and oftentimes beautiful Ourarguments.students have a lot of mathematical learning to do in order to build up the tools in their mathematical toolboxes. Proof is how they get to practice doing mathematics, not just learning about mathematics.
“If you ask your child how to divide fractions, she may not be that keen to chat,” continues Crowley. “But if you wonder aloud why in the world you would multiply by a reciprocal when dividing fractions, she is likely to be curious, explore a few examples and then proudly explain to you why that actually makes sense.
PUT TO THE PROOF
Many adults have memories of their math classes being mostly about rote procedural calculations. The answer was paramount to the concept, and the students who could calculate fast went to the head of the class. But at Burroughs, the deep, measured thinkers — the students who embrace the challenge and can reason out a solution — may have the edge. “We believe strongly that mathematics is about the reasoning, and we love when our students get excited about why certain rules and procedures work the way they do,” says faculty member Laura Crowley. “It’s about more than memorizing and mimicking. It’s about developing strong habits of mind and a growth mindset around mathematics.”
But if you wonder aloud why in the world you would multiply by a reciprocal when dividing fractions, she is likely to be curious, explore a few examples and then proudly explain to you why that actually makes sense.” — MATH TEACHER LAURA CROWLEY CurriculumMath problemInquiry-basedsolving at every level GRADE 7 Math 7 Math 7 Accelerated GRADE 8 Algebra I Algebra I Accelerated GRADE 9 GeometryGeometryAccelerated GRADE 10 Algebra II Algebra II Accelerated Algebra II Challenge GRADE 11 Topics in PrecalculusPrecalculusPrecalculusHonorsEconomicsStatistics&DataAnalysis GRADE 12 Topics in MultivariableAPPrecalculusPrecaluclusCalculusCalculusABAPCalculusBCCalculusEconomicsStatistics&DataAnalysis
For many years, teachers, with input from parents, recommended a track at the end of seventh grade that affected the sequence of math courses students would take later on. The new approach provides the necessary content for all students to take higher-level math and science courses — calculus and physics, including AP physics — if they demonstrate mastery of course content. Students may occasionally switch between levels from one year to the next based on teacher recommendations.
The department clearly articulates the essential content at each level for each year, delineating the content for both the regular and the accelerated courses. Teachers also create optional summer work materials for students who want to make a change, and they work closely with chat.
“Proof is the essence of mathematics,” explains Crowley. “That isn’t just me talking. Mathematicians and mathematics educators of all stripes agree.
A GOOD START Because mathematical learning builds on what has already been learned, the Math Department works hard to level the playing field in seventh grade. This year’s incoming class came from 28 elementary schools and had just as many math experiences. Two tracks — regular and accelerated — meet students where they are and prepare them for what’s ahead. At the seventh-grade level as at all grade levels, teachers make themselves readily available to help students outside of class. Sometimes students who start in the regular track are ready for the accelerated track by eighth grade. Upon entering the seventh grade, students are expected to have a strong number sense and a decent mastery of basic arithmetic operations. The seventh-grade teachers will require them to attack and be persistent with problems that don’t have an immediately obvious solution and to be willing to engage with more abstract concepts. So teachers begin each unit with what may be a review for some students but fills in gaps for others. The teachers quickly move more deeply into the content, approaching the material from a more sophisticated and abstract level than the students experienced in elementary school.
“If you ask your child how to divide fractions, she may not be that keen to
solve puzzles,” she says.
MATHEMATICS John Burroughs School | 7
writingemphasizedatherappreciatesShethatmathteachersBurroughsclear,crisp arguments and cautioned against taking any facts for granted.
At Brown, Brandt researches algebraic geometry, which is a field of math that uses equations to study geometric shapes. She loves working collaboratively to solve problems. “At Burroughs, I loved studying and solving homework problems with my friends during free periods. Now I get to work on research problems with colleagues from around the globe.”
The Math Department recognizes that some students will go on to mathematics majors while most will integrate their mathematical understanding and appreciation into their other college studies. But no matter what careers their students forge, Burroughs math teachers believe the problem-solving discipline that they teach has many real-world applications and will serve them well in “Collaboration,life.
Brandt loves problem solving. “Mathematics gives you a systematic framework in which to The Math Curriculum families to explain their recommendations for students from year to year.
“In trigonometry, we learned many sine and cosine identities, and we were expected to be able to rederive them if we wanted to use them. I really liked that. I find it much easier to remember something when I understand where it came from, as opposed to memorizing a formula.”
communication and working with ill-defined problems are skills that our students will need extensively when they enter the job market,” says Crowley. “We are working to show students the value of many mathematical practices: quick procedural thinking and an ability to articulate ideas aloud, to ask the right question, to generalize, to find patterns, to articulate coherent explanations, to represent mathematical ideas visually, to work collaboratively, to persist, to recognize when they don’t ‘get’ it, and to thoughtfully fill in gaps in their Theunderstanding.”hopeisthat Burroughs graduates will use the skills they hone in their high school math classes virtually every day of their lives.
IN POLYNOMIALS AS IN LIFE
MADDIE BRANDT ’11
When the solution to a math problem eludes Dr. Maddie Brandt ’11, she walks away with a nagging feeling in the back of her brain. “It will bother me until I completely understand what is going on,” says Brandt, who completed a doctorate in mathematics at the University of California–Berkeley and is now Tamarkin Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Brown “IUniversity.thinkthis happens in every subject. In an English class, you obsess over an essay until your writing conveys exactly what you are trying to say; or in an art class, you keep altering a painting until it looks exactly the way you want it to. Identifying these weak points in your work and poring over them allows you to ultimately make something great, and math provides no exception. Math is a very detail-oriented subject; you never want to leave a case out of an argument or assume something that you don’t understand is true.”
Storytellers in the History Department unravel the political and geographic context, the doomed liaisons, the ill-gotten gains and the unexpected twists that shaped the outcome of history.
The seventh-grade curriculum focuses on world cultural and physical geography, primarily in non-Western areas. Teachers stress population, political, urban and economic geography. Current events and modern global issues also play a key role in this class, so students read about climate change and the political situation in the Middle East.
Creative examples abound. For example, having seventh graders assess their ecological footprint gives them insight into the complexities of changing personal actions and public policies; watching 1950s sitcoms helps seniors better understand the stereotypes, the expectations and the social norms of that decade; and studying Japanese woodblock prints provides World Civ students with an insight into how Japan perceived itself in an age of growing nationalism and Western Theinfluence.more students relate to the past — the people, the places and the circumstances — the better they are able to present persuasive arguments.
The responsibility for engaging students in the conversation falls to teachers. Often, the hook comes in the form of primary sources. JBS history teachers go to great lengths to search historical archives for the first-person account — the letter, the journal entry, the visitor, the piece of art, the music or the literature — that most effectively connects their students with ordinary people from the past. For example, three World War II veterans who had fought in the Battle of the Bulge visited seventh-grade classes. They wore their uniforms, brought the contents of their 90-pound field packs and described the densely forested, hilly terrain and harsh winter conditions through which they traversed by foot. A classroom of seventh graders was transfixed, understanding for the first time the grit and sacrifice of a previous generation.
Having gotten their students’ attention and given them some context, teachers open up the conversation.
Social Studies 8: The eighth-grade course focuses on skills necessary to be an effective citizen in a democracy by examining the U.S. government. Students study the history and philosophy behind the American experiment before delving into the three branches of government. They read the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Missouri Constitution to understand the ideas, laws, policies and institutions that govern the nation and the state. In the spring, students write their first term paper for the department.
GLOBAL CITIZENS
World Civilizations I & II (grades 9 and 10): In World Civ I, the department’s first history course, students focus on the complex origins of the modern world.
PrimarySources
— DR. MARK SMITH
History That Sticks
THE COURSE SEQUENCE Geography and Global Issues: “Students don’t just memorize the rivers and mountain ranges of the world. We want them to know about the people who call those places home,” says Smith. “Geography might not be destiny, as Napoleon is alleged to have said, but we want students to see how the geography shapes civilizations.”
8 | A CLOSER LOOK HISTORY Burroughs history lessons are less about memorizing facts and filling in the blanks, and more about studying the past as historians themselves study it. The lessons require students to walk in another person’s shoes in another place and time, to make arguments that are based on evidence and to communicate ideas effectively.
THE HOOK
The course also emphasizes skill building, such as note-taking, paragraph development, research skills, making presentations and participating effectively in class discussions. In the spring, all seventh graders participate in a close study of climate-change challenges and policy options.
There is more than just curriculum, however. Several summers ago, history teachers surveyed the visual spaces within the department’s classrooms and then allocated funds to diversify what was represented on classroom walls, trying to ensure that students could see themselves and their history, not only in the curriculum, but in the classroom environment as well. Beyond their work in their own department, history teachers engage in the school’s diversity efforts as club sponsors and presenters for the eighth- and tenth-grade seminar courses.
“In one sense, being culturally competent and globally aware comes naturally to historians,” says Smith. “We study the past, which one historian likened to a foreign country, to understand the people who lived then on their terms. We seek understanding, not judgment.”
CAPABLE COMMUNICATORS
Direct andcriticallythrough“WeFirst-HandorEvidenceengagestudentsprimary-sourceanalysis—examiningdiaries,art,music,movies—toshowstudentsthediversityofthoughtandexperienceinthepast.Thinkingaboutdifferentdocumentsallowsstudentstofindbiasinsources,todiscussreliabilityofthesourcetomarshalevidenceeffectivelyfortheirarguments.Thesearegoodskillstohaveforyounghistoriansaswellasadults.ReadingaboutJeffersonisimportant,butitisnosubstituteforreadingJefferson.”
“We teach Socratically as much as possible, so students talk about history every day,” explains faculty member Dr. Mark Smith. “Students articulate their ideas — sometimes in small groups, sometimes in front of the class — which helps them practice their critical-thinking skills, thus developing their ideas about the topic before they have to write about it on a test.” Students learn to prepare and to share their ideas effectively. The conversation takes place formally — as seventh graders present nation reports and seniors teach a class in their elective Literature & History course — and informally through classroom discussions. “We want students engaged in conversation: listening carefully to each other, thinking critically about the material in front of them and then communicating their ideas clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing,” notes StudentsSmith.present their arguments in writing through a sequence of term papers. Middle school students write homework paragraphs in which they articulate and defend an idea. High school students write more involved papers and essays on tests in which they marshal evidence to sustain a defense of a thesis.
World Civ II picks up where the ninth-grade course ends and continues the worldwide sweep of history, arriving at the modern age. Using a variety of sources
“Long gone are the days when teachers concentrated solely on Europe and saw the rest of the world only when it collided with Europe,” explains Smith. “Students work with primary sources, learn to ask and answer historical questions, write a guided research paper and take their first history exam. In the process, they learn to think like historians.”
Students begin their exploration of world history and culture by examining humanity from the dawn of civilization through Medieval Europe.
The History Curriculum
Urban Issues & Design
U.S. History (grade 11): The U.S. History course begins with contacts between Native Americans, Europeans and Africans and continues into the 21st century with students studying the events, individuals and key themes of the American experience. Students read primary-source documents as well as essays by leading historians as they encounter a number of historiographical debates. Those controversies form the basis of the pair of term papers that students write in the junior year.
“These seminar-style courses are not beholden to chronology or to a set curriculum, so they provide students and teachers with tremendous academic freedom. The result is exciting classes that enrich the student experience and consistently earn the highest level of student satisfaction,” says Smith.
A study of ways in which women around the world have raised their voices and profiles since 1900 and the opposition they have encountered — including artistic and literary — students follow selected civilizations of the world through the Enlightenment, the Columbian Exchange, transatlantic slave trade, industrialization, imperialism and the wars of the 20th century. Building on the history skills introduced in ninth grade, teachers continue to explore the importance of historical causation, historical empathy, continuity and change over time, and historical evidence to build arguments. Students in both grade levels write term papers.
An inquiry into the political and scientificrecentramificationsethicalofandhistoricalissues
SENIOR HISTORY ELECTIVES
U.S. SinceHistory1945
An examination of the post-war era’s most ramificationsanddevelopmentsandpolitical,importantsocialculturalthelong-term
An exploration of historical novels, poems, short stories and essays that range from Yevtushenko’s Babi Yar Tennyson’sto Charge of the Light Brigade Bioethics
John Burroughs School | 9 HISTORY
By the time students graduate — the vast majority of them having taken a history course every year — they have critically examined the past and know how to articulate what they believe and to defend why they believe it.
Literature & History
An analysis of the design of the U.S. city and the Americaproblemsinterconnectedmyriadinurbantoday
Global FeminismModern
StudiesAfrican-American A study of
Senior Electives: After taking survey courses for the first five years of their Burroughs experience, students get to select a more focused course of study for the senior year (see below). Courses offered reflect student interest and faculty expertise. The elective approach allows for deeper dives into subjects than is possible in a yearlong survey course. These elective classes tend to be smaller than the department’s survey courses, which allows students to be more active in class discussions and to assume more responsibility for their own learning, often by teaching a class.
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Teachers are also using the STAR building to connect students to learning opportunities on other parts of campus — and even off campus.
When Burroughs built its original science building 55 years ago, it sent a message: Science is important here. “That’s always been part of our philosophy. And with the new building, we’ve absolutely maintained that philosophy,” says biology teacher Margaret Bahe, who joined the science faculty in 1979. When the Science, Technology and Research (STAR) building opened in the fall of 2018, she says teachers suddenly had the ability to teach hands-on science every day, not just two days a week during double periods in the labs. That’s thanks to the CLABs, or combined classroom-laboratories. “Even on single-period days, we can be in a lab area,” she says. “Your plants are growing; your bacteria are growing. You can check on them often because you’re right there in a lab.”
A spirit of collaboration has always existed in the Science Department — for example, the popular bioethics course co-taught by Bahe and Dr. Mark Smith (History) — but the STAR building makes that more possible than ever, for both students and faculty. One space that touches every department, but gets especially heavy use for science projects, is the Makerspace. Heading up the push for collaboration inside and outside the Makerspace is physics teacher and STEM coordinator Martha Keeley. She says the science teachers are excited about the proximity of the Industrial Technology and Engineering Department (ITE) to the science classrooms and the independent project Anspace.ITE faculty member trained the Science Olympiad coaches on basic safety in the metal and wood shops, “so now it’s safe for us to take students in there to do some work during practices,” says Keeley. Students train on the equipment in middle school, and they use those skills in Science Olympiad projects. For example, students built a xylophone using copper pipes housed in wooden bases, and the mousetrap car team 3-D printed wheels and a chassis. In past years, these things would have been tough to Keeley’sdo.
Upper school students take biology (grade 9), chemistry (grade 10) and physics (grade 11). As seniors, they pursue increasingly specialized areas of study. They can choose engineering or AP physics; carbon chemistry or AP chemistry; behavioral neuroscience or AP biology; and bioethics or AP environmental science. The STAR building is full of specially designed spaces that accommodate these study tracks (see page 11). All grades use the project room and the greenhouse.
10 | A CLOSER LOOK SCIENCE New Spaces, New Opportunities in Science
OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
The independent project space gives students a place to work, alone or in groups, outside of class. It is a highly trafficked area for about 30 student competitors who participate in the Science Olympiad competition each year. Other spaces include a lab for making biodiesel fuel, a neuroscience lab and the Makerspace.
State-of-the-art spaces — including classroom-laboratories, a project space, a biodiesel lab and a neuroscience lab — are changing the ways students learn science at Burroughs.
SPACES FOR SCIENCE “CLABs give us a lot more freedom in designing our lessons for the day,” agrees Science Department chair Wayne Winters. Lectures, discussions and note-taking skills still have a place, but students spend considerably more time doing science rather than listening to a teacher talk about science. “All the data and research show that science is better learned hands-on,” he says. Although the daily classroom experience underwent an immediate shift in the new spaces, Winters says the structure of the curriculum remains the same. In middle school, students acquire the skills they’ll need to succeed in high school. Seventh graders study life and earth science; eighth graders, chemistry and physics. Winters says it’s not the specific subject area that’s important at this point: “We used to teach a weather class. We could just as easily have an astronomy class. It’s the skills that are important,” he says. Those include “finding the best scientific methods for collecting data and doing experiments, learning proper ways of analyzing the data, and deciding what equipment or software to use to do that.” Now, middle schoolers have their own dedicated rooms in which to work and don’t have to disassemble their experiments to make way for the next class.
Tracy Walther, who teaches AP environmental science, leads a field trip to Litzsinger Road Ecology Center, which is known for its prairie restoration work. Students work with the center’s staff on water-quality testing and species monitoring, then shadow them to learn more about prairie ecosystems, including the roles specific plants play in the environment (for instance, attracting pollinators). Students leave with a list of plants that they could start from seed in the school’s greenhouse and then transplant in Burroughs’ prairie garden.
CLABS ... AND COLLABORATIONS
The Science Department is stretching out, exploring what’s possible in the STAR building. Inevitably, that positive impact will expand and affect every aspect of science learning at Burroughs, according to Winters.
“As we continue to explore what is possible in these spaces, our curriculum will change,” he says, “but our priorities will not.”
engineering class also fosters interdisciplinary study, connecting math, science and ITE. In the first semester, students learn about the engineering design process, view case studies and discuss engineering ethics. In the second semester, they build an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) based on those built for the national SeaPerch Challenge underwater robotics competition.
FUTURE PERFECT
Some Facts about at Burroughs
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seniorsseniorsscoreout4.667of5,averageAPChemistrycomparedtoa2.8averagenationally93%ofthisyear’selectedtotakeatleastonesciencecourse36%ofthisyear’sseniorselectedtotaketwosciencecourses74%ofthisyear’selectedtotakeanAPscienceclass
Greenhouse AP Environmental Science classes study conventional and genetically modified soybeans to see how nutrients and pesticides affected their growth. “But to do an experiment like that, you need environmental controls,” says Winters. Only soil and seeds are permitted to enter, never plants, to ensure that the greenhouse isn’t contaminated. Irrigation, nutrients and heating/cooling run on an automated system controlled by a computer that turns on swamp coolers, deploys a sun screen to deflect heat and triggers heaters — or sends out an alert to teachers in the event of a system failure.
It’s a CLAB. The STAR building’s classroom-labs have transformed day-to-day science teaching. “We can set up a lab in biology that has to sit for half an hour, and in that time, we can talk about the next steps, and then finish up,” says Bahe.
CurriculumIt’saclassroom!It’salab!
John Burroughs School | 11 SCIENCE The Science
Neuroscience Lab Dr. Scott Deken’s behavioral neuroscience students work with “model organisms” in a specially designed neuroscience lab, observing first-hand how the brain works, including sleep cycles and memory. Each team has a dedicated room where it weighs and trains its rats, and there’s a large common area with easily sterilized stainless steel counters that can be used for cleaning cages. The additional space opens up the possibility of working with larger animals.
The independent project space is where middle schoolers build their first Rube Goldberg machines and make rudimentary seismographs that they can test on a vibrating box fan. It’s also where upper school students work on multistep projects like mousetrap cars for the Science Olympiad. “They used to have to work on those at home,” says Winters. Now, they work on projects at school with access to a 3-D printer and a wealth of different materials. They can also lock up their projects at the end of the day for safekeeping.
“The idea is to do what works best. So if we need to spend 10 minutes talking and taking notes and working through some problems, we can do that and then move to something more hands-on,” Winters explains. “It gives us a lot more flexibility.”
Independent Project Space
Biodiesel Lab For several years, chemistry teacher Eric Knispel has been working with students to convert the kitchen’s discarded cooking oil into biodiesel fuel used by the Super Mileage Vehicle Club (SMVC) to power its studentbuilt vehicle and by the Plant Operations Department to power its equipment. The biodiesel room can handle every step of the process, from filtration to titration, and it’s big enough to accommodate an entire class.
By way of example, department chair Allégra ClémentBayard explains that her ninth graders use a textbook that takes into account that French is spoken in 29 countries, including in Africa, the continent with the world’s largest number of speakers. They also learn about French speakers closer to home. After reading The History of the Acadians of Louisiana and watching a PBS documentary about Cajun culture (in which they hear native speakers), students read the short novel Au revoir, l’Acadie (Goodbye, Acadia). “We read this out loud in class,” says ClémentBayard. “We get very dramatic and act out the parts; and then we talk about it in French.” They finish the semester by writing a newsletter focused on a specific topic, from Cajun cuisine to the story of the Acadian expulsion from the Canadian Maritimes. Walk down the halls at Burroughs, and it’s clear that the curriculum is this holistic and robust for all modern languages. You’ll hear teachers, many of them native speakers, and students conversing in Spanish, French, German, Russian and Chinese. Slip into a classroom, and you often will hear nary an English word spoken.
A robust curriculum immerses students in not only the language, but also the culture, history and art of people of different backgrounds.
Getting started in a language (Level I) involves a strong foundation in the vocabulary and language structures necessary for effective communication. In Levels II through V of French, German and Spanish, students tackle more sophisticated vocabulary and grammar, become proficient in conversing and writing, and deepen their understanding of the symbiosis between language and culture. A parallel, less-intensive curriculum in French, German, Russian and Chinese allows students (grades 10 through 12) to add the study of a second language as an elective.
As the ultimate out-of-classroom experience, upper school students are encouraged to participate in an exchange/homestay program or to take advantage of one of Burroughs’ many student travel opportunities. These beyond-the-classroom experiences include a French culture trip, a three-week German exchange program with JBS’s sister school in Stuttgart, a trip to Spain and a service trip to Guatemala. The school offers support for student travel to families of all income levels.
By the time they are seniors, after having finished their sixth year of study, many students choose to continue to study a language at the college level and place out of beginning and even intermediate college language courses. Of course, that’s just one benefit. Whether or not they choose to study a language in college, Modern Languages study at Burroughs equips students with a better understanding of the English language and American culture, a sensitivity to cultures beyond their own, and the ability to examine issues through a global lens. They can converse with a native Spanish speaker, use their German skills during business travel or apply their French expertise in diplomatic work or literary translation. By becoming fluent in a second language and opening themselves up to the world, the world opens up to them.
CoursesOffered HonorsFrenchSpanish,andGermanGrades7&8LevelsI-V(LevelIV)AP(LevelV)FrenchBeginningContinuingRussianBeginningContinuin g ContinuingChineseBeginningI& II SupplementalExperiences France HispanicFrenchExchangeGermanTripTripSpainTripGuatemalaServiceTripAsianCultureClubCultureClubCultureClub
Speaking a Language, Learning a Culture
“Our goal is to prepare our students to be global citizens,” says Clément-Bayard. “They study not just grammar and vocabulary, but cultural nuances — the literature, the culture, the history. All of this is contextual and so critical to learning a language.”
In grades 7 and 8, students have the option to study German, French or Spanish in classes that over two years cover the same material as a high school Level I course. By starting in middle school, students can complete five levels of study during six years at Burroughs. (Traditional Level I courses in French and Spanish are also available to high school students, particularly ninth graders who are new to the school.)
MODERN LANGUAGES 12 | A CLOSER LOOK
In that same classroom, you’ll see students speaking, listening and writing in their target language. You’ll see them discussing their reading of Don Quixote or Le Petit Prince in its original language; you’ll see them celebrating a quinceañera or playing boules; you’ll see them learning about the geography, history, politics, literature, film, music, sports and art of the countries in which the language is spoken. A state-of-the-art language laboratory complements the curriculum, giving students the opportunity to practice their listening and speaking skills. As students become increasingly fluent, they are also growing more culturally literate and globally aware — larger goals within a Burroughs education.
Learning nouns and verbs and stringing them together in understandable sentences is only part of the curriculum for the study of a second, or even a third, language at Burroughs. The Modern Languages Department takes language acquisition a step further by providing a strong underpinning of knowledge about the history, geography and cultures of other countries. It gives its students not only the ability to converse, but an understanding of people from different backgrounds as well.
The study of Greek and Latin provides a strong underpinning for the study of other languages and disciplines while training students to think precisely and logically.
Arnold, who also took Greek as an elective, says knowing both languages has helped her in studying science in college: “I know the roots of all these words and the vocabulary of biology.”
CLASSICS John Burroughs School | 13
“We also have more students enrolled in Greek than most classics departments at colleges,” says department chair Marni Dillard, adding that there are usually about 30 students enrolled in Greek — which is taught only as an elective. (There are 90 students, almost 14 percent of our student body, currently enrolled in Latin.)
* The school also offers support for student travel to families of all income levels.
Will Forsen ’19 took Beginning Greek as a junior, and continued as a senior with Greek I and Foundations of Western Literature, which traces Homer’s and Vergil’s influence through the modern day in works like The Hobbit and Minority Report. What initially drew him, he says, was the mysterious atmosphere of the third-floor classics area — with its posters, maps and cases of ancient coins — and kids spilling out of class speaking what sounded like a secret language. Somewhat to his surprise, he found Greek to be extremely practical; it gives him an edge in English, German and history, and as a college student, he draws on the language in his studies toward a degree in international relations. “With Greek, we’re not just learning a language,” he says. “We’re learning the history behind it as well, and some philosophy.”
Students learn about Horace’s life, read his works in Latin and then, in Italy, literally follow his footsteps. “At one point, students are physically in the room where he worked,” he says. “It’s still there.”
The Foundations of Western Literature and History of Classical Art courses are open to all upper school students. In the art class, students visit the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Kemper Museum at Washington University in St. Louis, and go on walking tours of the Central West End and Compton Heights to tease out the Greco-Roman influences on both ancient and modern art, as well as St. Louis architecture, which is heavily Theneoclassical.studyof Latin and Greek definitely teaches logic, but it also fosters an appreciation of art, literature and architecture, and shows students how, in many ways, the ancient world is still very much with us, according to Springer. “I was just in a panel discussion about why we study the humanities and Western culture,” says Springer. “And that’s it: You understand yourself better when you know where you’ve come from, in a deep way rather than just a superficial way.”
Mastering the Classics
Burroughs has always offered Latin, and we added Greek in 1990. For a high school to offer both is rare. And a Classics Department in which all faculty can teach both Latin and Greek is usually seen only at the college level.
Because the two languages no longer evolve — as they are not widely spoken — the rules don’t change. “That allows us to teach the language at a very deep level grammatically and structurally,” faculty member Dr. Avery Springer says. “When you learn the rules and you know what’s going on, figuring out the code is part of the fun. There are a lot of students who like Latin and Greek because they enjoy a Likepuzzle.”most students taking Latin as their core language, Almira Arnold ’19 started Latin in seventh grade, working through the Oxford Latin Course for three years. Using the story of a boy named Quintus, based on the Roman poet Horace, the course introduces students to basic grammar and vocabulary and prepares them to start reading original works in Latin in ninth grade.
“It also introduces them to a very important period in the history of Rome, the first century B.C.,” says Springer.
And then, of course, there’s the fact that few writings have stood the test of time so well. Arnold, for one, says she plans to continue reading and studying Cicero, Ovid, Horace, Vergil, Caesar and Catullus — just because she enjoys them.
Classics Burroughsat CoursesOffered Latin 7 & 8 Latin BeginningI–VGreekGreekI&IITheHistoryofClassicalArt:ItsGenesisandInfluenceFoundationsofWesternLiterature SupplementalExperiences Italy CoinGreekGreeceTripTrip&RomanCollectionClassicsClub
Dr. Jim Lowe, who has taught in the department since 1989, says studying classics enriches academics in general, because there’s a logical, sequenced thinking it forces the student to internalize. “To do Latin and Greek, you are doing the original coding,” he says. “It’s all about syntax. If you get the coding wrong, the computer program doesn’t work. If you get the code wrong in Latin or Greek, it doesn’t make any sense.”
The Classics faculty confirms that yes, the recent demand for Latin at the high school level is partly thanks to Harry Potter (though, as they note, the way he uses Latin in spells is pretty freewheeling and not always correct).
During that time, Rome shifted away from a democratic model of government. “We talk a lot about why that happened and what it means.” Classics teacher Philip Barnes adds that the classics help students understand modern civics as well, given that the U.S. founding fathers used Greece and Rome as their models, largely because they “didn’t want to be English.”
Travel opportunities to Greece and Italy further enrich the study of classics at Burroughs.* Arnold says going on the Italy trip during spring break of her sophomore year brought Latin to life for her. That’s exactly what the travel learning experiences are designed to do, says Barnes.
14 | A CLOSER LOOK THE BURROUGHS EXPERIENCE of studentsour participate in some aspect of our ARTS100%PROGRAM MUSIC 65% of our participatestudents Chorus • Jazz Band • Orchestra PERFORMING ARTS 47% of our participatestudents Theatre • Speech • Dance FINE ARTS 63% of our participatestudents Painting • Drawing • Sculpture Ceramics • PrintmakingPhotography
John Burroughs School | 15 THE BURROUGHS EXPERIENCE Beyond Academics PRACTICAL ARTS 69% of our participatestudents Computer Programming • Robotics Computer-Aided Drafting • Engineering Woodworking • Video Editing Architectural Drawing • Gardening Sewing • CDISTRICTAPPEARANCESFINAL(CSTATCookingEHAMPIONSHIPSteamandindividual)FOURHAMPIONSHIPSATHLETICS Fall 2010–Spring 2020 (no spring 2020 season) 1556847
