High School
MATH AND SCIENCE SEMINARS
Biology. Fabre, Life of a Fly, Life of a Spider; Darwin, Origin of Species; Watson and Crick, The Double Helix; Schrodinger, “What is Life?”; Aristotle, Generation of Animals
Geometry I. Euclid, Elements
Chemistry. Lavoisier, Elements of Chemistry; Faraday, Chemical History of a Candle; selections from Avagadro, Dalton
Geometry II. Modern Developments; later books of Euclid; non- Euclidean and analytic geometry
Astronomy. Mathematical and Scientific: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, Hawkings; telescope construction
Anatomy and Physiology. Gray, Anatomy; DaVinci, Mendel, Morgan, Brown (textbook)
Advanced Math. Einstein’s Special and General Theory of Relativity, Chaos Theory and Fractal Geometry
Psychology. Scientific Principles: James, Freud, Jung
Advanced Physics. Indeterminacy: Heisenberg, Eddington, Feynmann
LANGUAGE ARTS/SOCIAL STUDIES SEMINARS
FRESHMAN YEAR
World History. Medieval Texts include selections from: Augustine, Confessions; Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy; Tolkien, tr., Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae; Dante, Divine Comedy; Chaucer, Canterbury Tales; DaVinci, Notebooks. Second semester includes Renaissance Texts include selections from: Machiavelli, The Prince; Pico, Dignity of Man; Hobbes, Leviathan; Petrarch, Canzoniere; Shakespeare, Histories and Tragedies
SOPHOMORE YEAR
The Moderns. U.S. History and Literature Locke, Civil Government; Tocqueville, Democracy in America; Lewis and Clark’s Journals; Twain, Huckleberry Finn; Hannah Arendt, The Life of The Mind; Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron; Virginia Woolf, To The Lighthouse and The Waves
JUNIOR YEAR
World Religions and Ethics. Genesis; Exodus; The Gospels; Maimonides; Augustine, Confessions; Anselm; Aquinas; Kant; Martin Buber; Abraham Joshua Heschel; Isaac Bashevis Singer, Shosha; Simone Weil, Waiting For God; Upanishads; Doris Lessing, Selected Poetry; Rousseau, Emile; Herman Hesse, Narcissus and Goldsmund; Stendahl, The Red and The Black
SENIOR YEAR
Origins of Government & Economics, Contemporary Literature Becker, Economic Approach to Human Behavior; Smith, Wealth of Nations; Marx, Das Capital; Ricardo, Principles of Economics; Dickens, Hard Times; Austen, Emma; Camus; Ibsen; Gogol; Kawabata; Louise Erdrich, Tracks; Luis Borges, Labyrinths
Senior Year at Atheneum. The final graduating year at Atheneum consists of special areas of study in addition to normal course work. Seniors will be expected to write a major thesis on a specific topic of interest and committment. This thesis will be reviewed by a staff committee and discussed in an oral exam near the end of the year. Seniors will have more independent working time during school, and off campus studies will be encouraged. A community service project such as working in a political campaign, work with charity organizations, volunteer tutoring of younger students, or a choice of other work/study projects will extend their learning experience beyond campus. Graduating seniors will have actual working experience to prepare them to participate in larger communities.