High School Course Strategy

Graduation Requirements

Our graduation requirments include all the necessary credits prescribed by the Tennessee Department of Eduacation and the Tennessee Board of Regents for the college Preparatory Diploma.

High School Course Outline

This course outline follows the Tennessee Department of Education requirements for the College Preparatory Diploma as well as the specific requirements of Stone Table.

English: 4 units

(Please note that Rhetoric focuses on grammar and composition. Literature and vocabulary are handled under the Humanities. However, Literature and Rhetoric are combined only for formal transcript purposes under the title of English 1, 2, 3, and 4.)

• Rhetoric I (English 1): Logic and Debate
  
  • Primary Texts: Cothran’s Traditional Logic and Rhetoric I Anthology
  • Rhetoric I surveys formal logic in order to equip students with the necessary skills for persuasive argument. Students write weekly papers based upon the logical exercises they are practicing. Interspersed within this course are various forms of writing and creative writing.
• Rhetoric II (English 2): The Research Paper
  
  • Primary Texts: Strunk and White’s Elements of Style and Rhetoric II Anthology
  • Rhetoric II continues the practices of Rhetoric I while focusing on crafting a principled, organized research paper. Students perform weekly writing assignments of a broader scope than Rhetoric I.
• Rhetoric III (English 3): Creative Writing
  
  • Primary Texts: Quiller-Couch’s On the Art of Reading and Rhetoric III Anthology
  • Rhetoric III continues the writing projects of logic and research and applies these skills to the arena of story telling.
• Rhetoric IV (English 4): Poetry
  • Primary Texts: Quiller-Couch’s On the Art of Writing and Rhetoric IV Anthology
  • Rhetoric IV is the culmination of all the skills and exercises students have practiced to date. Students apply all that they have learned in the highest literary art of poetry.

Humanities (History, Literature, Economics, & Civics): 5 units

Our History classes rotate on a 5-year plan that surveys Creation to the present day. American History will be provided for any high school student who needs this requirement and does not have an opportunity to take it within the normal 5-year cycle.

• Humanities I (Ancient History 1): Israel in Antiquity
  • Select Primary Texts: The Old Testament, Jordan’s Through New Eyes, Gilgamesh, Bhagavad-Gita, Confucius’ Analects, Herodotus’ Histories, Josephus’ Histories, The Apocrypha Johnson’s Rasselas, Lewis’ Till We Have Faces, Tolkien’s The Silmarillon
  • Humanities I surveys God’s plan of Creation, Fall, and Redemption from the Beginning to the return of exiled Israel. As a backdrop to the Biblical world students explore the cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Canaan, and Persia.
• Humanities II (Ancient History 2): The Coming of the Kingdom
  • Select Primary Texts: The New Testament, Homer’s Odyssey, Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Poetics, Cicero’s Orations, Virgil’s Aeneid, Apostolic Fathers, Athanasius’ On the Incarnation,
  • Humanities II focuses on the transformation of Greco-Roman culture at the coming of Christ and His disciples. Students interact with the Pseudo-Hebraic culture of the Greeks and Romans and the early flowering of the Christian church from the time of Christ to Constantine.
• Humanities III (European History): Christendom
  • Select Primary Texts: Augustine’s Confessions, Beowulf, The Song of Roland, Sir Gwain and the Green Knight, The Koran, Chesterton’s Ballad of the White Horse, Scott’s Ivanhoe, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Dante’s Inferno, Vasari’s Lives of the Artists, Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Calvin’s Institutes, Westminster Confession of Faith, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Spenser’s Fairie Queen
  • Humanities III surveys the great Christian empire of Byzantium, the Barbarian Invasions of the West and their subsequent conversion, Feudalism, the Rise of Islam and the response of the Crusades, the Renaissance, and the Reformation. Students learn from and evaluate the great Christian saints who have gone before us.
• Humanities IV: American History
  • Select Primary Texts: Mather’s Sermons, Edward’s Sermons, Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans, Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Federalist Papers, Grant’s Patriot’s Handbook, Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, Melville’s Moby Dick, Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Poe’s Tales, Washington’s Up From Slavery, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn
  • Humanities IV considers the making of a republic and the remarkable persons and events that made it such a unique experiment. Students learn the history of America from the days of Columbus to the Great War.
• Humanities V (Modern History): Modernity
  • Select Primary Texts: Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Burke’s Reflections, Eliot’s Silas Marner, Scott’s The Antiquary, Romantic Poets, Dickens’ Hard Times, Buchan’s Greenmantle, Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, Churchill’s Speeches, Lewis’ Experiment in Criticism, Lewis’ Mere Christianity, Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Schaeffer’s How Should We Then Live?
  • Humanities V traces the roots of Modernity from the French Revolution and the Enlightenment to their fruit in the present day. This course primarily focuses on the antithesis between Revolution and Reformation. It equips students to reform their Post-Modern culture and project the successor to Post-Modernism.
• Civics: 0.5 unit
  • Primary Texts: The Pentateuch, The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, The Constitution
  • Civics discusses Biblical government from the character of God and His granting of authority to the heavenly bodies on the 4th day and to His vice-regent, man, at the 6th day. Specific attention is paid to the structure of American government. Students structure and participate in a working school government.
• Economics: 0.5 unit
  • Primary Texts: Belloc’s Servile State, Gerber’s The E-Myth
  • Economics literally means home rule. Therefore the primary focus of our economics course is on the stewardship of the home and then on the stewardship of marketplaces and nations. Students learn practical resource management and actively participate in school economic affairs.

  Math: 3 units

  Successful completion of Saxon Algebra I, Algebra II, and Advanced Mathematics includes the state-required Geometry credit.

  • Algebra I
    • Primary Text: Saxon’s Algebra I
    • Algebra I covers the complexity of algebraic formulae in the area of problem solving. Students employ the combination of algebra and geometry in the development of theorems and formulae.
  • Algebra II
    • Primary Text: Saxon’s Algebra II
    • Algebra II covers the complexity of algebraic formulae in the area of problem solving. Students employ the combination of algebra and geometry in the development of theorems and formulae.
  • Advanced Mathematics
    • Primary Text: Saxon’s Advanced Mathematics
    • Advanced Mathematics continues the study of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry to lay a firm foundation for students wishing to commence into Calculus studies.
  • Calculus (Optional Elective for Juniors or Seniors)
    • Primary Text: Saxon’s Pre-Calculus
    • Calculus merges mathematics, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry and applies them to the areas of design and motion. Students particularly apply calculus to the technologies of the computer, automobiles, and flight.

  Science: 3.5 units

  • Physical Science
    • Primary Text: Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Physical Science
    • Physical Science explores how God’s Lordship is back of mechanics. Students interact with the principles of creation in the many environments of this world and in the massive expanses of the universe.
  • Biology (Includes Lab and Health Requirement)
    • Primary Text: Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Biology
    • Biology considers the sciences of physics and chemistry in their more complex states. This course covers 1 semester human anatomy and 1 semester, plant and animal biology. Students take a semester lab.
  • Chemistry (Includes Lab)
    • Primary Text: Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Chemistry
    • Chemistry entails a survey of the periodic table of the elements and the application of mathematics to chemical reactions. Students take a semester lab.
  • Physics (Optional Elective for Juniors and Seniors)
    • Primary Text: Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Physics
    • Physics walks students through the mathematical relationship of matter to motion. This class primarily employs experiments. Students present proofs for experimental conclusions by the writing of weekly papers.

  Foreign Language: 2 Units of the Same Language

  • Latin
    • Latin I and II immerses students in the mother of western languages. Students read the classics in Latin and learn to cipher and discern Latin texts. Special attention is paid to the etymology and meaning of Latin vocabulary and its implications for modern English
  • German I
    • Primary Text: Mastering German I
    • Starting with Mastering German I, students will focus on vocabulary and conversation. Grammar will be taught as students encounter concepts starting with the most basic elements first. By the end of the year, students must be able to carry on a simple conversation in German.
  • German II
    • Primary Text: Mastering German II
    • The primary goal of German II is conversation. By the end of the school year, students will be reading and conversing in German at an intermediate level.
  • German III
    • Primary Text: The Holy Bible in German
    • By this class, students will be ready to read and communicate at conversation level. Students will converse in class, read sections of the Bible in German, and begin using the Internet in German.
  • Spanish I
    • Spanish I will take a student from no Spanish experience to being able to “get by” in Spanish. Students will learn greetings, numbers, days of the week, and basic conversations using several tenses.
  • Spanish II
    • Spanish II takes students from the introductory level to more complex and sustained conversation. Students will learn complex verb concepts, nouns, agreement, and sentences.
  • Spanish III
    • Spanish III concentrates heavily on conversation and reading in Spanish.

  Physical Education: 1 unit

  Physical education is designed to give students the opportunity to apply the principles learned in the classroom to the playing field. Special attention is paid to exercising leisure in connection with the commandment to rest.

  Fine Arts: 2 units
  (Students may choose to repeat either Choir or Drama to receive their 2nd unit of Fine Arts.)

  • Drawing and Art History I
    • Primary Text: Nicolaides’ The Natural Way to Draw
    • This course instructs students in the fundamental drawing techniques. Students learn to draw what they see and witness. Coupled with this is a study of the masters through art history.
  • Painting and Art History II
    • This course builds off the techniques learned in Drawing and translates them to brush and canvas. Students further their survey of the masters. Prerequisite: Drawing and
      Art I
  • Choir and Music History
    • Primary Text: Westermeyer’s Te Deum
    • Choir sings and performs the great pieces of Christendom. Special study is given to the long history of music in the Church from Israel to the present day as well as the art music of the great classic composers.
  • Drama
    • Drama performs the great plays of Christendom and instructs students in the many arts of theater and visual story telling.

  Electives: 1 unit

  Elective opportunities may continue to develop as the school grows.

  • Greek and Hebrew
    • This course spends a semester on each of the Bible’s original languages. Students learn the alphabet, phonics, grammar, and basic vocabulary of Koine Greek and ancient Hebrew. Students interact with modern day language tools for interpreting the Scriptures through their grammatical contexts.
  • Architecture
    • Primary Text: Serlio’s The Five Books of Architecture
    • Architecture surveys the work of Sebastiano Serlio, the Italian Renaissance artist. Students learn architectural language and reproduce extensive illustrations. Students also use one quarter in the reproduction of a scaled 3-dimensional model.
  • How to Read the Bible as Literature
    • Primary Texts: The Bible, Ryken’s How to Read the Bible as Literature, Jordan’s Through New Eyes
    • This class teaches students a Biblical worldview, or, in other words, how to properly understand and correlate the Bibles seemingly complex imagery to the real created world. This course emphasizes the importance of Biblical details in order to understand the moral implications of Biblical stories. Primary focus is given to knowing the book of Genesis and its many characters, places, and types.

  Service Elective/Internship: 0.5 unit

  • Primary Texts: Grant’s Micah Mandate, Grant’s Leaders in Action Series
  • The crown of education is virtue. Therefore, one of our chief aims is to cultivate leaders through service. This senior course places students under a mentor in the community where they have the opportunity to apply their principled learning to the aid of others.

  Dissertation: 0.5 unit

  The senior dissertation is the culmination of each graduating students growth and wisdom in the form of a thesis. Seniors craft a thesis under the direction of a partnering teacher and must defend it before the faculty before commencement.