Specialty classes at Choir School go well beyond music

Courtesy photo/Austen Diamond Photography

+ Enlarge

Students at The Madeleine Choir School enjoy time in their visual arts class, one of many specialty classes that adds to the school's holistic curriculum.

Courtesy of The Madeleine Choir School

At The Madeleine Choir School, the focus to educate the whole child begins in pre-K and continues through the middle school years with the study of traditional subjects like math, science, language arts and social studies and is enhanced with additional coursework in theology, music theory, Latin, Spanish, French, choral singing and violin instruction. These specialty subjects have shaped the school’s definition of educating the whole child, along with classes in physical education, visual arts and information literacy.   

“[The] vision of a holistic education seeks not only to instill basic skills, diverse modes of reasoning, or familiarity with essential texts or disciplinary approaches, but to help students define an identity, a direction in life and a personal philosophy,” explains Steven Mintz in his InsideHigherEd.com article titled “Educating the Whole Person: Moving Beyond Basics” (October 2014). “Education of the whole person is about more than self-actualization; it also attempts to cultivate students’ social, emotional, physical and ethical development and to foster creativity, promote psychological well-being, stimulate a rich and thoughtful interior life, explore core beliefs, encourage social engagement and cultivate empathy and an ethic of service and caring.”

In addition to the STEM subjects, the choir school’s curriculum including numerous specialty courses is also supported by the school’s Student Learning Expectations, which provide students a compass of sorts with insight to the ‘why’ of learning.

Steps to becoming effective communicators and responsible world citizens are two of the four SLEs that are at the forefront of preparing students at MCS to go into the world and make an impact. SLEs provide aim for students to leave MCS with the ability to:

• Articulate and defend well-supported arguments

• Use different written genres and technological innovations to communicate ideas in multiple academic fields

• Explore and critically evaluate diverse viewpoints

• Advance Gospel values when considering issues in the public forum

• Be respectful, responsible and hospitable to others

• Provide service and support to the local and global communities in need

• Apply Catholic social teaching to current issues in civic and international affairs

• Develop a sound sense of stewardship for the earth’s resources and one’s personal gifts and abilities

“It is through a cross-disciplinary section of study and engagement where a student may find their voice as a leader in explaining the nuances of a scientific experimentation, or they may have a vision as an entrepreneur with an engineering discovery,” said MCS Principal Megan Randazzo. “We fully embrace the importance of our specialty courses because we know that creativity can come from knowing a musical composition; the ability to communicate in a foreign language; having painted their own work in a relevant artistic style; internalizing a concept or lesson learned in theology class; or the physical act of imparting force on a ball in various sports, or other activities where physics are at play. Inspiration can be found in so many different experiences.”

The Madeleine Choir School, since its beginnings in 1996, has championed the concept of educating the whole child; the multi-disciplinary curriculum and SLEs serve as strong foundations to form responsible world citizens and effective communicators.