Analytical work in grammar, the first stage of a two-year program, introduces parts of speech, the components of phrases and clauses, and the basic patterns of English sentences. Through close study of a relatively few classic and modern works, students address increasingly subtle moral and philosophical questions, confront diverse and often ambiguous conclusions about the nature and meaning of human existence, and, ideally, come to a passionate appreciation of the power of literature to expand, deepen, and illuminate “real” life-to lift us beyond our daily lives toward some transcendent vision of “the good, the true, and the beautiful.”Ĭlass VI English places major emphasis on the mastery of fundamental verbal and study skills: sentence and paragraph construction, vocabulary development, concise summarizing, precise reading, systematic thinking, and disciplined listening. At the same time, it encourages students to pursue an equally active personal, empathic involvement with literary characters and events. That study of literature stresses the close observation of specific words and details and the development of an actively questioning approach. It also provides opportunities for first-hand experiments in poetry and fiction-for a more personal rendering of individual experiences and ideas-opportunities that permit students to feel within themselves the interplay of experience, imagination, and language that animates the great literature they study. While the program emphasizes the mastery of conventional organizational patterns for analytical and persuasive writing, it encourages students to recognize the creativity inherent in the best critical writing. Work in composition aims to build a concern for clarity, precision, and style. Work in language emphasizes the development of a rich, flexible vocabulary and a confident grasp of mature syntax it also seeks to foster a respect for language and, in time, a love of it-its capacity to define and describe and transform experience, its power to make the strange familiar and comprehensible, the commonplace mysterious and beautiful. Throughout the program, assignments and classroom activities encourage disciplined, thoughtful approaches to reading and writing, listening and speaking. The English program provides a sequence of study designed to develop skills and attitudes essential to such a commitment: the ability to read and observe with discrimination, sensitivity, and pleasure the ability to communicate information and ideas clearly, persuasively, and gracefully the inclination to temper reason with understanding, to balance intellectual rigor and compassionate humanity the urge to pursue the meaning of life but the perspective to recognize and relish life’s complexity and ambiguity. The teaching of English at Roxbury Latin is founded upon the classical concept of the “examined life”-upon the belief that a lifelong commitment to intellectual, aesthetic, and moral exploration and growth gives existence meaning and character.