Grade Eight

In Grade Eight, the following curriculum components are introduced:

• Mathematics: Continue Algebra; geometry; practical. technological, and scientific applications of mathematics
• Language Arts: Composition: essays, research reports, short stories, poetry
• Literature: Short stories, poetry, Shakespearean drama
• Science: Physics; organic chemistry; human anatomy (muscles, bones, ears, eyes)
• History & Social Studies: The Age of Revolutions; American History; The Twentieth Century; Liberation Movements throughout the World; research reports
• Geography: Asian Geography
• Handwork: Embroidery and machine sewing
• Woodworking: Developing authority and mastery of skills: may include projects such a creating a sphere and wood block printing
• World Language: Continuing world language instruction with review and consolidation of all past work, re-telling stories, acting out dramas and plays, music and poetry, modern culture.  Focus is on all Spanish-speaking countries including the USA, also biographies of famous Latinos/as.
• Visual & Performing Arts: Drawing, clay modeling, painting, portraiture, chorus, recorder, instrumental ensemble, Shakespearean drama
• Movement/Physical Education/Games: team games and team building, trust building games, complex strategy

Like Janus, the Roman god of doorways, the Grade Eight student is looking in two directions simultaneously. On the one hand, Grade Eight is the culmination of the student’s experience. It is a time of reflection, of summing up, and all the bittersweet feelings associated with an ending. At the same time, the eighth grader’s gaze is turned towards the future and a new beginning. He or she fears, yet yearns for, the immense changes anticipated there. The Grade Eight curriculum must address both of these impulses. The focus of the former is concentrated in the daily practice classes, where review and consolidation of practical skills and capacities are emphasized. In addition, the children’s capacity for logical thinking and independent judgment fully awakens at this time. The authority of the class teacher gives way to the individual student’s search for truth.

Language Arts

In the Language Arts there is an increasing emphasis on nuances of style and grammar in the student’s expository and creative writing. We continue to help the student to develop perspective, voice, point of view, and style through a study of American literature and a study of the short story. Students also read and study modern literature and works from across the curriculum, and produce a class play.

Mathematics

The Mathematics curriculum concentrates on the application of arithmetic operations in practical and scientific situations, Algebra studies continue, and the students are introduced to the binary system, which made possible the development of computers. They learn the principles of solid geometry, and actually construct the five platonic solids.

History

The forward-looking impulse is best addressed in the main lesson, and in particular, the history curriculum. Whereas Grade Seven took as its theme the intellectual and aesthetic flowering of the Renaissance, the eighth grade is fully present in modern times and ensuring that we have encompassed the entire globe through a study of such world patterns as weather, ocean currents, and trade. Nothing characterizes the modern period better than the great revolutions—the industrial, political, and scientific revolutions that pulled down the old monarchial orders, and, in turn, gave rise to the struggles for individual freedoms and human rights. Biographies continue to provide a wealth of historical insight and to allow the young person to connect in a lively way with events of earlier times. All these have had far-reaching cultural consequences, and it is important that the students consciously realize and appreciate this as they themselves are carried into the turmoil of adolescence.

Science

The Science curriculum in the eighth grade encompasses physics, chemistry, and anatomy. The teacher demonstrates how the discovery and application of scientific principles contributed directly to the development of our modern technological society.

Physics

In physics, the study of acoustics, optics, heat and electro-magnetism is extended through hydraulics and aeromechanics.

Chemistry

The organic chemistry block covers sugars, starches, proteins, and fats– focusing on those processes by which organic substances are formed (e.g., photosynthesis) and transformed (as in digestion).

Meteorology

Meteorology offers another chance to look up at the skies and to examine world patterns.

Physiology

The Grade Seven study of physiology is expanded to a study of anatomy providing a framework for understanding the impressive increase in height and muscle seen at this age. Health, hygiene and nutrition are also addressed.

Music

Choral singing may expand in Grade Eight to three and four-part harmonies to take advantage of the range of voices found in the adolescent class. The recorder program may also expand to take on more challenging work.

At the end of Grade Eight, the students have successfully achieved the balance and intellectual curiosity necessary to step out into the greater world offered by high school–where the creative and developmentally-appropriate grade school curriculum is met and transformed into an intellectually-stimulating, college preparatory education.

The text above is adapted from the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education, with revisions that reflect the MPCS curriculum.