Green Acres School

Students benefit from understanding their own culture as well as other cultures throughout the world. The social studies program at Green Acres enhances and enriches each student’s sense of individuality and self-awareness while emphasizing meaningful connections to other people, events, environments, and time periods.

In the Middle School, students study unifying themes in grade 5 — the Revolutionary War period and the beginnings of American westward expansion. The year culminates with the highly anticipated Oregon Trail unit, which challenges teams of students to face dilemmas and negotiate to reach the West with a minimum of hardships.

In grade 6, students concentrate on the roots of modern societies in ancient civilizations, such as Egypt, Greece, China, India, and Rome. Hands-on activities deepen learning; for example, students read not only about mummies but actually mummify chickens and bury them for the following grade to excavate the following year.

In seventh grade, students synthesize more complex information naturally. The seventh grade social studies curriculum comprises both a comprehensive course in world geography and a survey of American history of the nineteenth century. Students study in depth the critical historical event of the time, the Civil War, and they examine a range of topics that are relevant to our world today, such as immigration, imperialism, and discrimination.

In eighth grade, the curriculum expands to cover more abstract concepts, such as social justice and responsibility. Students take World Studies, a history of the world since 1900 through the eyes of the United States. World Studies challenges students to synthesize and analyze world events in sophisticated ways that they have not yet encountered, and teaches them to question interpretations of history through in-depth discussion, argument, and simulations. The eighth grade curriculum also comprises a class unique to Green Acres: Ethics and Community Service (ECS). Based on the principle that an ethical life includes service to others, ECS challenges students to improve themselves and the world around them in increasingly sophisticated ways.

By the time students graduate from Green Acres, they have encountered rich and varied experiences, many of their own making, that encourage them to broaden their perspective of the human experience as it relates to themselves, their families, their school community, and the world beyond.