Class eight completes the class teacher period. The fourteenth year brings strong new perceptions and a readiness to study the laws that underlie natural processes, artistic laws, the laws of mechanics.
The discoveries of the Renaissance form the basis of this year. The advent of puberty leads to a strong awareness of the processes of the body and a new self consciousness. These complex feelings of awakening are met by a study of The Renaissance and the plays and sonnets of Shakespeare. The beginnings of scientific thinking in the Renaissance and the emergence of a new individual self consciousness that began when long held views of the world and faith came under scrutiny are comparable to the development of young people entering puberty. Engagement with great literary works and cultural studies help the class 8 student find outer resources and resist self absorption.
Main lessons include a study of the Renaissance, Geology, the Dawning of the Intellect – covering the Renaissance and Shakespeare on the one hand and Inventions and Machines on the other, the Age of Discovery, Processes of Change, Responsibilities of the Individual. Care is taken to interweave Art into History, Geography into Science, English into Art.
Discoveries about the human body lead to a study of anatomy and the processes of the body.
A camp at Mutawingi in NSW introduces the Class to the deep sense for country, community and the law of indigenous Australians. Click here for Secondary Subjects