One of the chief interventions in Saint Martin’s educational program is the inclusion of all aspects of a student’s life in the curriculum. From the organizational structure of the student body, to labor on the farm, work in the kitchen, prayer, academics, and even to the unscripted social interactions of the students themselves, every aspect of life at St Martin’s is part of the education. This is one of the reasons Saint Martin’s is exclusively a boarding school: every moment, task, and class is an opportunity for developing the intellect, growing in virtue, and increasing one’s faith. Academics are, however, the central discipline around which the life of the school takes shape.
While our academic curriculum is the product of much reflection, research, and discussion among our faculty members and our Board of Advisers it is not, and likely never will be, entirely immune to revision. Each year the faculty will review the curriculum with the purpose of correcting deficiencies and capitalizing on strengths.
These charts represent an outline of the curriculum .
9th Grade Curriculum |
Main Lesson | Trimester | Topic | Books |
Letters | 1 | Mythos | The Bible, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Norse Mythology, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream |
| 2 | Greek Letters | Homer: Iliad and Odyssey, Aeschylus: The Oresteia, Seven Against Thebes, Sophocles: Oedipus Rex, Antigone |
| 3 | Roman Letters | Ovid: Metamorphoses, Virgil: Aeneid, Shakespeare: Julius Caesar |
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History | 1 | Prehistory to the Hebrews | Code of Hammurabi, Story of Sinuhe, Epic of Gilgamesh, The Bible: Genesis; Exodus; Kings, Western Heritage Reader |
| 2 | Greek Civilization | Hesiod: Works and Days; Theogony, Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian Wars, Pericles Funeral Oration, Plutarch: Lives, Western Heritage Reader |
| 3 | Roman Civilization | Livy: History of Rome, Tacitus: Annals, Julius Caesar: Gallic Wars, Western Heritage Reader |
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Religion | All | Fundamentals of the Faith | Catechism of the Catholic Church |
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Science | All | Natural History | Jean-Henri Fabre: Selections |
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Math | All | Algebra I / Applied Mathematics | Schneider: A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe; Making Math Meaningful |
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Language | All | Latin | Various |
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Practicum | All | Construction Trades | |
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10th Grade Curriculum |
Main Lesson | Trimester | Topic | Books |
Letters | 1 | Rome and the Incarnation | Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus; Antony and Cleopatra, Augustine: City of God, Dante: Inferno |
| 2 | Medieval I | Dante: Purgatorio, Beowulf, Malory: Le Morte D'Arthur,SirGawain and the Green Knight, Shakespeare: Henry V |
| 3 | Medieval II | Dante: Paradiso, Boccaccio: Decameron, Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales, Cervantes: Don Quixote |
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History | 1 | Roman Empire to Late Antiquity | The Bible: Gospel of Luke; Acts of the Apostles St Athanasius: St Antony of the Desert, Martyrology, Western Heritage Reader |
| 2 | Early Middle Ages | Bede: History of the English Church and People Western Heritage Reader |
| 3 | High Middle Ages | Bradford: Great Siege of Malta, Aquinas: Summa Theologica, Bonaventure: Journey of the Mind to God |
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Religion | All | Church History and The Liturgy | Jackson: Nothing Superfluous |
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Science | All | Earth Science / Biology | Various |
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Math | All | Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometry | Euclid: Elements |
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Language | All | Latin | Various |
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Practicum | All | Construction Trades | |
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11th Grade Curriculum |
Main Lesson | Trimester | Topic | Books |
Letters | 1 | Study Abroad - Christendom | The Song of Roland, Parzival, Bolt: A Man for All Seasons |
| 2 | Early Modern | Shakespeare: Hamlet, Goethe: Faust, Milton: Paradise Lost |
| 3 | Late Modern | Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities, Hawthorne: Short Stories, Twain: Huck Finn, Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment |
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History | 1 | Christendom in Europe | Ananda Coomaraswamy: Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art, St. Benedict: The Rule |
| 2 | Reformation to Revolution | Luther and Erasmus, Bacon, Copernicus, Descartes, Newton, Robespierre, Republic of Virtue |
| 3 | America: Founding to Civil War | Crèvecoeur, “What Is An American?”, J. Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Declaration of Independence, Washington, “Letter to the Hebrew congregation”; Constitution; Federalist Papers; Lincoln: "House Divided Speech" |
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Religion | All | Pre-theology: Logic and Intro to Philosophy | Boethius: Consolation of Philosophy, Plato: Dialogues, Aristotle: Categories, Analytics |
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Science | All | Chemistry | Various |
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Math | All | Advanced Mathematics: Algebra II / Precalculus | Various |
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Language | All | Latin | Various |
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Practicum | 1 | Study Abroad | |
| 2 | Construction Trades | |
| 3 | Construction Trades | |
12th Grade Curriculum |
Main Lesson | Trimester | Topic | Books |
Letters | 1 | Modern | Conrad: Lord Jim, Steinbeck: Grapes of Wrath, O'Connor: Short Stories |
| 2 | Lyric | Hollander: Rhyme's Reason, Corn: The Poem's Heartbeat, Various Lyric Poems |
| 3 | World Literature | St-Exupery: Little Prince; Wind, Sand, and Stars, Czeslaw Milosz: The Witness of Poetry; Poems, Bernanos: Diary of a Country Priest |
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History | 1 | Modernity: WWI | Churchill: The World Crisis David Jones: In Parenthesis American Heritage Reader |
| 2 | Modernity: WWII | Churchill: The Second World War, Keegan: The Second World War American Heritage Reader |
| 3 | Totalitarian Ideology and Humanity | Gustav Herling, Worlds Apart; Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, Martin Luther King Jr., Papal Encyclicals, George Orwell: Animal Farm |
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Religion | All | Intro to Theology | Pieper: The Four Cardinal Virtues, Faith Hope and Love; Aquinas: Summa Theologica |
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Math and Science | All | Physics | Various |
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Rhetoric | All | Rhetoric and Composition | Various |
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Language | All | Latin / Elective Greek | Various |
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Practicum | 1 | Construction Trades | |
| 2 | Construction Trades | |
| 3 | Financial Management | |