Word: walden
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...Walden, a radically new curriculum has been developed, a plan so exciting within the school that there is again the idea of doing something revolutionary in education...
None of this material is presented in the "science is good for us" style of the typical ninth grade general science course, quite possibly the worst offering of American high schools. Instead the Walden students really participate in their education, as they seek to understand how the earth was formed and how life developed...
...this time the Walden students have grasped much of what is involved in the shape of the earth, and in the late winter they begin learning about what it is composed of. Ideas about the different states of matter are presented, and they begin to examine about twenty key elements. The concept of atomic structures is introduced, and these elements, their properties, and the ways they combine are considered. When a few more are added, the beginnings of the periodic table may be understood. Then another twenty-odd elements are studied because of their importance to man, elements like gold...
They do not spend all their time on this program, of course. In the eighth grade it takes twelve fifty minute periods per week. Meanwhile the Walden students are taking a general language course which brings them the basic ideas of languages, speech, formation, cognate patterns, etc., a basic American history course including a study of current events, and an English course. Furthermore, within the science course, attention is drawn to the implications of science for society. For example, in the study of the development of the ancient idea of the year, it is shown that a stable society...
About halfway through the ninth grade the Walden students are ready to study man, but they do so first not as historians but as physical anthropologists, noting those details in his physical development, like prehensile grasp, stereoptican view, speech, and erect posture, which distinguish him from other primates...