Student Syllabus FALL 2024
St Theodore's Institute Classical Liberal Arts Curriculum
St Theodore's Institute offers a curriculum for teaching the Classical Liberal Arts, including Mathematics and Science. This syllabus describes the first four years of the seven-year programme, which can be used as early as ages 14-18, or at the 'college' level. This sample is for 'High School' aged children, i.e., American grades 9-12.
NOTE: This programme is planned for academic year 2025-2026. An intrepid student could follow it, however, as it is created 'in real time' in Fall 2024.
The curriculum is divided, each year, into the following 'courses' for convenience:
Seminar (the integrated Classical Liberal Arts Curriculum)
Classics (Latin and (optional) Greek)
Mathematics
Science
A Practical
Both Student and Teacher manuals (will be) provided and you can see the progress in creating them at https://macrobius.substack.com
Most of the materials for 'taking the curriculum' exist today, and will be linked below. However the most important parts of the 'Seminar' -- the Trivium and Quadrivium -- are still being written up (Fall 2024).
The STEM parts of the Quadrivium (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) are mostly links to existing materials and broken out for convenience.
The Practicals
Practicals require an instructor, online audio-visual materials (at a minimum), or a laboratory such as a language lab or a science lab
Other examples are field work and practice (e.g., team sports, some Geology and Biology, with a Naturalist), penmanship and calligraphy, plastic arts, machine or automotive shop. Learning a modern vernacular language or a capella singing would be other examples of a practical. Traditional Latin can be learned if you have access to a Traditional Mass, and Traditional Greek can be learned in some churches of the Greek Archdiocese in North America. Both will use the typical 'early modern' pronunciation ('Ecclesiastical Latin' and 'Koine Greek' respectively).
The following practicals are described in the curriculum:
The Pronunciation of English and Latin (Diction)
Debate or Original Oratory
Public Speaking
Parliamentary Law (participating in the formal meetings of an organisation)
Mathematics and Science
It is very much preferred if the student can complete 'Algebra I' in the Saxon Math series, before beginning the programme. However, it is possible to do the traditional American High School Mathematics series, as an alternative. This is represented in Saxon Math (for example), by Algebra I, Geometry, Plane Trigonometry, Algebra II, Calculus. This is five courses in four years, which has inconvenient phasing. Trigonometry and Algebra II are commonly combined into an 'Advanced Mathematics' course, given Junior year.
This still does not achieve the full programme, which is given here, that gets to 'Advanced Calculus', which in American seems only to be taught in elite prep schools. Our curriculum gives the complete programme, but in many cases, if a university education is going to follow, getting to Calculus by Senior Year should be enough, even for STEM students.
Freshman Mathematics and Science
If the student already has Algebra I (in, for example, the Saxon Math series, from 7th or 8th grade, then Geometry for Mathematics.
For Natural Science, we propose studying General Biology this year, with no set text specified (yet). If Biology or Chemistry have been 'recently done', say in the two preceding years, consider moving Sophomore Chemistry back one year to make room for an additional science from the 'Advanced' list, perhaps in Junior year.
The Science curriculum is still somewhat fluid and under discussion.
Wikibooks does have a 'General Biology' text free and online, but as many have noted, it is more like a set of student notes, if comprehensive, with links to wikipedia articles.
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/General_Biology
Euclid
Euclid (and Geometry) are a core subject for the Quadrivium and our 'Euclid supplement' aims to be authentic in this regard. The Saxon Math Geometry text or similar may be substituted if preferred.
Euclid Online
Paper editions, such as the one from Greenleaf Press, or the three-volume set by Heath, available in Dover Reprint.
For our course, however, we will key to the online texts available:
https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.html
https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/toc.html (Table of Contents for Books I-XIII)
Heath's Euclid commentary is available at:
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0086
and also
https://archive.org/details/thirteenbookseu03heibgoog
Sophomore Mathematics and Science
For Mathematics, Euclid 2 Guide, to be supplied, along with Advanced Mathematics. If Freshman Year was Algebra I, then Geometry this year instead.
Also, if not done Freshman Year, then we need General Chemistry this year.
Required text:
Pauling, General Chemistry
https://www.amazon.com/General-Chemistry-Dover-Books/dp/0486656225
Yes, I know it is an old text (first edition, 1947), however it is very inexpensive, and still suitable for our purposes. It is still needed as a reference for Freshman and Sophomore year seminar, even if you choose a different General Chemistry test or curriculum.
Reference for all years of science, free online at the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST, that is paid for by American taxpayers):
https://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/ (online chemistry handbook)
Junior Mathematics and Science
Calculus and Differential Equations
Required texts:
Benjamin Crowell eta al, Fundamentals of Calculus, available for download from:
https://archive.org/details/2016FundamentalsOfCalculus
or J. B. Phillips, Analytic Geometry and Calculus
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.5653
with (required follow on):
J. B. Phillips, Differential Equations
https://archive.org/details/differentialequ00philgoog
We depend heavily on the free Science texts by Benjamin Crowell, as they are free, downloadable, and very high quality. For this year, meeting the 'physics requirement' for the Life Sciences, and a good general physics text for High School, we have:
Introductory Physics
Benjamin Crowell, Light and Matter
https://archive.org/details/benjamin-crowell.-light-and-matter
website for all the books: https://lightandmatter.com
Senior Mathematics and Science
Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra
Primary Text TBD:
Phillips, Vector Analysis or similar
https://archive.org/details/vectoranalysis0014hbph is examination copy
Also, required Supplementary Text
Schey (Div, Grad, Curl, and all That)
https://archive.org/details/H.M.ScheyDivGradCurlAndAllThat
Advanced Science
Depending on whether the student is continuing in the Life Sciences or other STEM, this course can be at 'first year college level', for which a variety of suitable
Recommended science is Advanced Physics, but requires Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra course concurrent, and thus Calculus to have been completed in Junior Year.
Recommended for Advanced Physics
https://archive.org/details/simple_nature
Free and downloadable. A good choice for most STEM if they have the preparation
Designed to be followed by, next year (beyond our scope)
Crowell, Modern Physics: with Waves, Thermodynamics, and Optics
https://archive.org/details/mod_20220102
Recommended Alternatives for Advanced Chemistry
Atkins et al, Physical Chemistry
https://www.amazon.com/Atkins-Physical-Chemistry-11e-Peter/dp/0198769865
or, this innovative series, available online, which treats Inorganic and Organic Chemistry together:
https://www.meta-synthesis.com/webbook/01_intro/intro.php
Inorganic Chemistry recommendations
https://celqusb.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/inorganic-chemistry-g-l-miessler-2014.pdf
https://www.t.soka.ac.jp/chem/iwanami/inorg/INO_0001.PDF (shorter)
Recommended for Advanced Biology
Brooker, et al, a standard college text for General Biology:
https://www.amazon.com/ISE-Biology-Robert-J-Brooker/dp/1265121133
Organic Chemistry
If Organic Chemistry is preferred (for example, because continuing in the Life Sciences), and especially if a Laboratory practical is available,
https://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/vogel_practical_ochem_3.pdf
Classics
Currently described here: https://github.com/macrobius/Encyclopedia/blob/main/sti/Classics/Latin_and_Greek_Schedule.md
Required text for all four years: Available online, and also as a textbook.
Ziobro, Latin in Early America
https://college.holycross.edu/faculty/wziobro/ClassicalAmerica/LtinEAmHP.htm (still the 'sample' Latin parts until you know enough to read them)
Freshman Seminar
This seminar has the following components, and is based on the
Required Main Text: Sister Miriam Joseph, The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric
https://www.amazon.com/Trivium-Liberal-Logic-Grammar-Rhetoric/dp/0967967503
Examination copy: https://archive.org/details/triviumliberalar0000miri
The Seminar is an integrated Classical Liberal Arts curriculum. That is, it covers the Trivium (Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic), as well as the Quadrivium (Mathematical component), with the edition of the Natural Sciences, to complete the preparation for a professional career in STEM (and a General Education).
Grammar Review
Required reference, for all four years:
McGraw-Hill, Handbook of English (Shaw, 1950)
https://ia802804.us.archive.org/14/items/mcgrawhillhandbo00shaw/mcgrawhillhandbo00shaw.pdf
This component leans heavily on the classics, but also shades into Logic and Rhetoric, as in the primary textbook for this seminar.
Traditional (Formal) Logic
Required Text, Martin Cothran (student book only - do not purchase the whole set unless you wish!):
https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/logic-and-rhetoric/traditional-logic-i/
Online and downloadable:
https://archive.org/details/traditionallogic0000coth
Also, Traditional Logic II (recommended esp. if Traditional I Logic has been done previously by the student)
https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/logic-and-rhetoric/traditional-logic-ii/
Freshman Rhetoric
Supplement on Speaking and Diction (TBD)
Cothran, Classical Rhetoric
(to follow Traditional Logic I and II)
https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/logic-and-rhetoric/classical-rhetoric/
Aristotle's Rhetoric
https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/logic-and-rhetoric/aristotles-rhetoric/
There are also many online, free, and downloadable versions.
Literature and History of Colonial Northern America
https://whigdev.com/white/index.php?threads/southern-literature-reading-thread.2518 (Weeks 1-4)
Required Texts:
James Cantrell, How Celtic Culture Invented Southern Literature
https://www.amazon.com/Celtic-Culture-Invented-Southern-Literature/dp/1589803302/ref=sr_1_1
For Colonial New England,
Daniel Howe, History of the Puritan Republic of the Massachusetts Bay in New England
https://archive.org/details/puritanrepublico00howeuoft
Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi americana (2 vols.)
https://archive.org/details/magnaliachris01math (vol. 1)
Both volumes and the text by Howe are available, in various editions, from Google Books.
Other texts on Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean to be recommended
Recommended:
Hackett-Fischer, Albion's Seed
https://www.amazon.com/Albions-Seed-British-Folkways-cultural/dp/0195069056
Kevin Phillips, Cousins' Wars
https://www.amazon.com/Cousins-Wars-Religion-Politics-Anglo-America/dp/0465013708
Sophomore Seminar
Introduction to Philosophy
Required Texts
Coppens, A Brief Text-Book of Logic and Mental Philosophy
https://www3.nd.edu/~maritain/jmc/etext/lamp.htm
Required Text:
Lear, Aristotle: The Desire to Understand
https://www.amazon.com/Aristotle-Desire-Understand-Jonathan-Lear/dp/B00B9ZG8LK
Euclid 2 Supplement
To be supplied, with our Quadrivium Guide
Junior Seminar
Literature and Oratory of the Early American Republic
Required text (if not completed Freshman Year):
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Southern_Literature_from_1579_1895/F_gnAAAAMAAJ
https://whigdev.com/white/index.php?threads/southern-literature-reading-thread.2518 (through Week 9 or to end)
The Federalist Papers (many editions; make sure you do not get one 'translated into contemporary English')
The Virginia Constitutional Convention
Virginia Bill of Rights
https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/1776-virginia-bill-of-rights
Consider: https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/mcclellan-liberty-order-and-justice
Natural Philosophy and Science
Required text:
Brother Louis of Poissy:
Elementary Course of Christian Philosophy
https://www3.nd.edu/~maritain/jmc/etext/cp.htm
Kreyche, First Philosophy (recommended)
https://www.amazon.com/First-Philosophy-Introductory-Text-Metaphysics/dp/B000LCDG58
Supplement on Natural Science and the Philosophy of Nature (TBD)
Common Sense Realism
Garigou-Lagrange, Thomistic Common Sense
https://www.amazon.com/Thomistic-Common-Sense-Philosophy-Development/dp/1645851079
Scottish Common Sense Component (SCSR) TBD
Symbolic Logic
Component to be supplied (TBD)
Zane's Story of Law Tucker's Blackstone
Required Text: Zane, The Story of Law
Downloadable from these two sources:
https://oll.libertyfund.org/people/john-maxcy-zane/titles
https://archive.org/details/storyoflaw0000zane
Required Text:
Tucker's Blackstone
Note: the American edition has appendices on
Component description and content:
https://macrobius.substack.com/p/announcing-tuckers-blackstone-study
Progymnasmata (optional)
A traditional set of prose composition exercises, as described in Bauer and Wise, The Well-Trained Mind, TBD
Senior Seminar
Introduction to Moral Philosophy and Wilson's Lectures on Law
Required introduction (brief):
Coppens, A Brief Textbook of Moral Philosophy
https://www3.nd.edu/~maritain/jmc/etext/mp.htm
(online reading) James Wilson and the American Constitution
https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/james-wilson-and-the-american-constitution
Required Text:
https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/the-history-of-james-wilson-s-law-lectures
Mathematical Logic
Required Text:
Quine's Methods of Logic
https://www.amazon.com/Methods-Logic-Willard-Orman-Quine/dp/0674571762/ref=sr_1_1
Parliamentary Law
A supplement to the Practical (TBD)
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